


A Bride For The Bird-King

by Ejostra



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Doctor Strange (Comics), Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Give Wong A Break, Human Sacrifice, Hurt Stephen Strange, Hurt Tony Stark, Insecure Stephen Strange, IronStrange, M/M, PoorWong, Protective Tony Stark, Stephen Is A Freaking Demon, Stephen Strange & Wong Friendship, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Is A Blacksmith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2020-05-15 22:23:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 41,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19305028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ejostra/pseuds/Ejostra
Summary: The choice was made. Anthony Edward Stark was supposed to become a human sacrifice for the Bird-king, a very old demon plaguing the lives of villagers. Chained to the stone on his knees and waiting for his death or worse, the white veil from his head is slowly lifted and the eyes of the demon and blacksmith meet for the first time. Neither of them expects what happens next.Inspired by td269´s beautiful drawings.





	1. Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I´m starting a new story despite of so many unfinished laying around in my computer. Shame on me!

 

 

Anthony Edward Stark was called many things in his life and with quite few he happily agreed on the occasion. A coward was never one of them.

Tony hadn´t pleaded when the villagers had busted his house and workshop or when too many armored guards overpowered him simply because he hadn´t been ready for them. He hadn´t pleaded when they´d used a mixture of dried herbs to knock him out while they´d bathed him and put him into the white robes, too pretty to be worn by him. And certainly he hadn´t pleaded when he´d come to his senses and felt someone pushing him onto his knees, the chains being wrapped around his wrists and the white veil cover his head.

Now he didn´t plead either, no. That wasn´t quite in his nature.

Instead he was pulling at the chains succumbing to the slight panic overpowering his body. Because the bastards had stripped him of everything useful, he had a little other choice than to just hope they´d secured his restraints poorly.

He never had as much luck.

The steps were heard further down in the cave, heavy thundering steps indicating that someone-something was approaching in a very lazy manner. Tony pulled harder. So hard that the yelp of pain escaped his lips when the chains cut into his skin and few drops fell down onto white fabric. Not so pretty anymore.

His picked up heartrate was resonating in his ears like a loud deafening music in the tavern. A deadly one, that was for sure, because he could hardly hear where the creature was at the moment. It was approaching, but how long until it will slit his throat?

Tony yanked few more times, deepening the cuts horribly and quickening the blood flow all at once. It hardly mattered, if he was about to become a damn corpse in the next seconds.

Please. Please. Come on. Think Anthony. There has to be something you can do.

The truth was there wasn´t. It was only his ever fighting brain, which just didn´t know how to give up. The rest of his body had known since few minutes ago that physically it was impossible to get away from the place.

Only if he had the means to end it by himself. Anything sharp to cut where it mattered. He almost laughed at his stupidity. If he had anything sharp, he would get out from the chains very easily, no need for a big dramatic suicide attempts.

Suddenly he felt very defeated.

Tony laid his hands into his lap, breathing in and out, his chest feeling too tight to be able to still do that. He waited.

The noise of the approaching creature stopped. Tony could swear he heard the drops of water collide with cold stone somewhere in the cave.

And then the veil was slowly lifted from his head. Very, very slowly. Tony picked up his gaze, his whole face turning upright. If he was about to die, he won´t do it bowing down.

Claws and a bird like hand was the first he saw, the first gripping at the cloth firmly above Tony´s hair, not letting the veil fall any further down his head.

Their eyes met or at least Tony thought so.

The creature was enormous, twice the size Tony was and wrapped up with its own wings, royal red color, such a color for which the court would kill to have on their cloaks. The yellowish glowing eyes - the only thing visible from the face and in the darkness around - were locked on Tony´s sweating face, on his eyes still not turning away. It looked almost surprised, thoughtful… delighted?

Tony was shaking, badly. There was a lot of blood coming from his wrists down onto his clothes and stones. Maybe he will sooner pass out from the drugs and blood loss than waiting on the final blow from the creature.

He blinked. Scared, but not moving, not jerking away. His vision soon became black on the edges, or maybe it was the darkness around? A puff of air escaped his mouth, which seemed very much like a whimper.

The creature suddenly more aware than before, slid with its eyes down, stopped dead at the puddle of blood around Tony´s knees. It made a shrieking noise. Quick and harsh and Tony closed his eyes on the instinct, expecting one of its claws on his exposed neck any given second.

What he didn´t expect was his neck to stay how it was, unmarked and veins closed, while the restraints were suddenly gone. He blinked once more, but everything in front of him was a sea of swimming pictures, not willing to stay put even for as long as he would crawl on his feet. He stumbled. One of his hands coming to his heavy head and leaving a red smear over his cheek.

Tony´s fingers went reaching out. To a wall, anything while his knees were giving out, not willing to hold him up any longer.

As he fell onto something warm and soft, the thing wrapping around his form, he smiled. At least he will die comfortable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, so this is the prologue to my new story inspired by td269´s drawings. Actually it was a result of one long night writing session. Are you interested in more? Let me know! 
> 
> Find me on my [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ironstrangerule) and my [channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAvYEGsPHeUkLentO-jsufQ?sub_confirmation=1).  
> Td269´s [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/td269) here!


	2. Not an ally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And here enters Wong, and Tony is being difficult as always XD.

 

Tony woke up slowly. Feeling groggily even before he had a chance to fully come to himself.

After few seconds he groaned with frustration. The process was painfully sluggish. Like when he used to wake up from the night spent in the tavern.

His body seemed to give him time to think about what his senses were telling him about his surroundings. Each second of his brain prolonging the time to the full consciousness was like a small nudge towards him noticing the unfamiliarity of the place.

The fresh smell of nature. The soft rustle of the trees. Tender grass under his hands. The sound of flowing water just next to his head.

He opened his eyes. Blinked.

Birds.  
So many birds up in the sky. Colorful. Beautiful. Lake at his side. Peaceful forest at the other.  
As he laid there, unable to move or act, he almost smiled at the picture.  
But then he remembered.

He wasn´t supposed to smile. He wasn´t supposed to be at such a magical place. He wasn´t supposed to be at all.

He jerked upwards. His whole body jumping in the fighting mode in a single second while his eyes frantically mapped the close radius. Where was he? Was it a dream? Was he dead? Was everything else the dream and this a reality?

Tony looked at his hands. Swearing.

The cuts of the shackles were there, hidden and dressed in the strips of cloth which he easily recognized. They were the same that villagers had wrapped around his forearms down to his hands. Those were supposed to be all bloody, just like the rest of his clothes, but no.

Everything was clean. Even the veil resting over him like a blanket.

And he had his clothes on. Thank gods. His fingers blindly found the metal under his tunic and tapped. Yeah, still there. His heart beating. That was… good.

Tony peeked under the bandage, taking the muddy mixture, which he found there, between his fingers and to his nose. Herbs. But who? Why?

The answer to his confusion and surprise came just a moment later, when there, behind his back, a man appeared like a ghost and Tony jumped to his feet. His eyes moved frantically everywhere at once in search for a weapon or anything he could turn into one. He almost stumbled to the river, when his head reacted to the sudden movement with throwing a tantrum on its own. A wave of dizziness washed over him like a cold rain and he had to sink to one knee to keep himself from blacking out again.

“Hey, hey, easy,” the man´s voice carried a strange tone of unease and worry. Was it a monk? He certainly looked like one. Dressed in long brown robes, no hair and that body figure…

The man made few small steps forward and Tony reacted with an embarrassing fall on his butt and an attempt to crawl further away. Seeing this outcome, the monk stopped at his tracks completely.

For a long moment nothing was happening. The silence was interrupted only by Tony´s ragged breathing and his crazy heartbeat indicating that some important organ was about to jump out of his chest very soon.  
The man grimaced, then raised his hands in the air in the surrender gesture.

“I´m Wong,” he said carefully, “you don´t need to be afraid of me.”  
Tony swallowed hard, before running the man over with his eyes trying to decide how much of that statement could be true.  
“Where… where is it?” Tony asked. There was no way he was lucky enough to somehow escape his decided fate. He wasn´t naïve like that to even hope for it. But he needed to know what was happening, why he was here and what awaited him.

Since he´d woken up he mapped the place around with his eyes at least twice. There wasn´t anyone else there. As he blinked the glimpse of the bird-like claw appeared in front of his eyes and he automatically flinched. No, the thing wasn´t here. Not yet at least.

The man – Wong – looked at him frowning.  
“Don´t address him like that.”

Tony returned the gaze as firmly as he was able to with shaking limbs and sweat forming on his forehead.  
“How should I address… him,” his tongue almost failed him again, “then?” There was a lot of venom in his voice and he could hear it himself. The man was clearly with the beast. Maybe voluntarily, maybe not. But it was no ally of his.

“Start with something more respectful.”  
Tony didn´t answer this. He only continued to glare, daring the man to come any closer.

“He… made you this.” Wong stayed where he was, but he pulled a small wooden mug from his pocket and placed it on the ground next to his feet.  
“For your wounds.”

Tony gazed at the present suspiciously.

“Here,” Wong continued and put a small linen bag next to the first item, “you put it into the hot water. The tea will erase the remaining effects of the drugs. You know how to set up a fire, don´t you?”

Tony fought away the urge to snap on the man. Of course he did, he was a freaking blacksmith.  
“I take it as a yes then. The lake is clean. You can drink from it. There is also food in the cave along with everything you will need to make a fire.”  
Cave?  
Oh, yes.  
The cave was there, further away from the lake, but not so far he couldn´t see it between the lines of the trees.  
It wasn´t the same cave though.  
Oh, no.  
Where the hell was he?

“I advice you not to wander around. You don´t know it here and a lot of predators won´t be as accommodative as your host.”  
“Are you reading my mind?” Tony bursted out, unable to control the sudden thought.

The man smiled.  
“No.”

A moment of silence passed and the man-Wong, Tony reminded to himself, shook his head.  
“You are just looking like one second away from running drugged and hungry into the wildness and that, my friend, is a stupid idea.”  
Tony just glared. “We are not friends,” he spat despite his better judgement. The man didn´t seem to be affected by his words in the slightest.

Ignoring what Tony just had said, he started to turn back to the place he magically appeared in and Tony´s mouth opened in protest.  
“Wait, what… What is he planning to do with me?”

From all of the possible situations, he would never expect this. Tony wouldn´t expect to survive and to be anything more than a toy in the monster´s claws. Why would he care about the toy? Why to give him these things?

Wong stopped at last, not turning back, but his head tilted to the side and to Tony behind him.  
“You are his sacrifice. His bride. He can do whatever he pleases with you.”

The man´s voice was cold, but not hostile. He said it like a matter of fact. Tony felt sick only thinking about what those words really meant.

When Wong disappeared behind the enormous tree, he sighed, hopeful. They gave him a time to prepare, that was a mistake.

 _He can do whatever he pleases with you._  
“We´ll see.”

\---

Tony survived the next day without any of the items Wong had left for him. No matter how he´d craved for something warm in his stomach, he hadn´t touched the stuff. The bag and the mug were laying at the same spot as yesterday and they will stay there until Wong would return for them or some wild animal will put his nose inside and die instead of Tony.

It was a poison for all he knew. Not worth the risk.

His wrists weren´t better or worse as before for that matter – so no pressure. It seemed that cleaning the cuts only with water wasn´t quite enough, but again… poison. He was sure he could survive without the medicine.

Surprisingly it was much harder to withstand the drugs slowly leaving his system. Tony found himself tripping and running into certain objects more than he would like to.

The food was an experiment, because he couldn´t find anything on his own without wandering further into the woods and for that he wasn´t ready yet. With a minimum of knowledge about his whereabouts and nothing sharp to use for the protection, it was a suicide mission, that much he knew.

He would lie, if he claimed that he wasn´t scared of the moment when the monster will decide to reappear. Despite his attempts, he had no plan prepared of how to stand against such creature. Tony was quite skilled with weapons, but here the best he got was a stick to bang his head with. That would hardly help.

The second night came and Tony retreated to the cave where he´d settled a small cot around the fire. The veil served him as a fine blanket, now a bit dirty, but warm and soft nonetheless.

Tomorrow morning he will go and map his surroundings. Maybe climbing some tree? That wasn´t the best idea with those wrists, but what else he could do?

He fell asleep with the thoughts of his workshop, the smell of steal and hot air. Then it was Rhodey´s voice and Pepper coming by to say hello and joke about big blue circles under his eyes. They sat down for a moment, talking and having a drink, sharing the events of the day. Both of them leaving with a loud chatter down the street, but before that ushering him to bed, where in a next moment a claw would lay a white veil down over his naked body.

\---

“How is he?”

A low raw voice carried itself in the night to Wong´s ear and the man smiled weakly.  
“I was afraid you wouldn´t ask.” But of course, he would. Wong could sense his restlessness all day long.  
“He is better. I´m afraid those wounds will be inflamed very soon. He is quite reckless with his own health.”  
“Did he use the herbs? The ointment?”

Wong sighed, turning his eyes back to the fire near his feet, unable to stare anymore into the darkness where he expected the other man to be.  
“He hadn´t touched it.”

A minute of silence passed and Wong wondered if that was the end of their conversation.  
“Food?”  
So no. It clearly wasn´t.  
“He had to touched that. Nothing else for him to eat.”

Wong watched the fool during the day, his attempts to not stumble all the time while walking and having his first small venture around the place. He amusedly witnessed how the man put a small leaf into the water and watched for changes of color to see whether the water was really drinkable or how he did the same with food.

“He put some kind of a worm in there, watching whether it will eat the fruit.”  
“He is very clever.”

Wong just nodded.  
“And a complete idiot at the same time. You fit together perfectly.”

A disagreeing noise was heard, but Wong knew better than to be startled by it.  
“What are you planning to do with him?” He asked the same question he was given a day before by someone else.

This time the silence was much longer.

“That if I knew.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CAUTION!
> 
> No, kidding, nothing bad is happening, I just need to THANK all of YOU, who wrote me those amazing, heartbreaking comments and just kicked me to write this new chapter overnight. Well done, my friends! You won! And I´m deeply touched by your nice words of encouragement. I haven´t answered each one individually, but I will from now on. So if you want to share your thoughts with me or really just tell me about your day, feel free, that will make me extremely happy. And I will answer. :)
> 
> BTW: How do you like Wong entering the story? He just kind of did and I could hardly do anything about it. At least he is the right kind of person, who won´t take any shit from neither of the boys, right? :)


	3. Trees and birds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything around is working against Tony. Even his own failing health.

It’s been three days. Three long, boring days since Tony had been chained to the rock and left for a mercy to the demon. The same demon, who now actually didn’t seem to care about him enough to at least come and… who knows? Drink his blood? Eat his eyeballs?

Tony wasn’t a patient man and in his current mental state he would probably take any reason to meet a living soul. Birds didn’t count. Their whole purpose of living was strictly minimalized to annoy him wherever he sat his foot. Counts twice when it was anywhere near the forest.

Yep. The birds for whatever reason kept him away from stepping behind the first few lines of the trees whether it was night or day. They would just appear every time the thought even crossed his mind, chirping loudly enough to give him a headache. They would pull at his clothes, attack him in numbers to move him away, back to the clearing. And Tony would eventually let them, because it was either that or nursing numerous cuts all over his arms and face after each encounter.

He didn’t need any more problems on the top of his reddish wrists. Tony was aware they weren’t healing right and the ointment being left on the sun like that was useless even if he had changed his mind and decided to apply it after all. His bad. To his defense, he’d counted with the possibility to enter the forest and in the emergency case make something on his own. That option was unreachable right now.

At least there was still enough food and wood. The fruit was tasty and some of it Tony didn´t even recognize.

Despite that he lived, had what he needed and wasn’t in any immediate danger, overall - he felt terrible. After he mapped the place – the lake, the clearing and the cave – there was hardly anything else to do. The cave’s corridors were sealed with gods know what kind of spells, which wasn’t nearly as big surprise as Tony would have originally thought.

Of course, demons would know how to use magic. That was only one more obstacle on his way back home.

All in all, after three days he wasn’t really far away from being trapped like a mouse in the cat’s house. He clearly wasn’t allowed to go to the forest, but even if he was, he had literally no idea, where they were. Even stars didn’t seem the same no matter how hard was Tony shaking his head while looking at them. At least this morning he found a weapon.

Sort of.

It was a broken head of the rusty arrow. Nothing fancy. But with a right cleaning and sharpening it was more than empty hands.

He worked on the arrow first as it was his best line of defense. Doing something with his hands kept him in good spirits for a while. Until it was late afternoon and his fingers were almost numb from the striking pain. And he still planned to climb a tree to take a look from the top.

He saved his home-made tools in the corner of the cave, hidden away while he placed the arrow in his pocket and patted the fabric for a good feeling.

The tree he chose was a tall one. It had to be. Otherwise there was no point in climbing it. Usually he was good at these kind of things. He was flexible and in a good shape. But Tony still had a healthy respect for highs. At the end he decided he will only test the trunk and the wood for today. In the magic forest he could hardly count with the tree being… well, just a normal, classic tree. Better twice measuring than falling to his death because he was impatient.

“Okay, here we are.”  
He stretched his fingers, carefully massaging the spots around the cuts on his wrists. Something was telling him they won’t get any better, so it was either testing now and trying tomorrow or in few days there won’t be any trying at all. Probably just him crying himself into the sleep on the cold stone in the cave.

“Hold on, tree, don’t throw me down, I’m already hurting enough.”

Only if it was that simple – asking the tree to help him and the piece of wood agreeing to it – no, that happened only in fairy tails.

Another thing which happened only in fairy tails should be that the tree actually starts to move all of the sudden, making weird noises and shaking his branches just at the poor man wants to grab onto them.

In this manner, Tony found himself taking steady deep breaths laying on his back where the oh, damn, sentient tree had tossed him few minutes ago. At least he hadn’t chance to climb high enough to break something on his quick way down.

The last thing he expected – well, except of the moving trees – was the soft, suppressed laughter somewhere behind him.

Wong hadn’t shown himself since that first day, but sure… He was probably waiting until Tony would make something embarrassing first.

“Yeah, laugh on the poor sacrifice victim being manhandled by a tree. Does it talk? Please, tell me, it doesn’t talk.” Who knows why that freaked him out.

“No, the trees don’t talk. Why would they?”  
The man explained like it was stupid to even ask something like that.

Tony stayed on the ground for few more seconds, just relaxing, trying not to cry about his hands and thinking how he will get himself back on his feet when the whole world was spinning in front of his eyes.

“Are you alright?”  
“Wonderful,” Tony sighed irritated, still not standing up, but at least he managed to sit and press his back against his new tree friend.  
“What do you want? Came to finish me off finally?”

Wong frowned. “That would hardly explain why I’m bringing you food, right?”  
The man then let the bag with said items fall next to his feet and made a step forward.

Tony’s natural reaction was to flinch back, but there was no more place to go.  
“Don’t… hey, what are you doing? Don’t touch me! Hey!”  
The man reached for Tony’s forehead despite the loud protests and threats aimed his way.  
“You are burning up,” Wong said after pulling away like he expected Tony to jump at him. Which wasn’t so unrealistic scenario all things considering.

“I’m fine. It’s warm.”  
“No, you have a fever.”

Tony couldn’t take this game anymore.  
“Why do you care?”

The man was clearly taken aback by that question.  
“He sent me to ensure you are in a good health.”  
“Why does he need to have me in a good health?”

He was walking on the thin ice and he saw that clearly on Wong’s face. The man looked tired and not pleased by Tony’s attitude at all. Good.

“You are his, whether you like it or not. If he wants you alive, you will stay alive and well.”  
So it seemed he got onto the man’s nerve.  
“I’m not his. I’m a free man. Why won’t he come and tell me this by himself? Worried that I might kill him first?”

Wong’s face suddenly twisted.  
“No, that he is not afraid of. You can’t kill him so easily.”

They gazed at each other for a painfully long moment, which stretched almost endlessly.

“I can kill myself,” Tony said after all and to that Wong smiled softly.  
“Yes, that is what he is afraid of.”

\---

Wong left after taking the ointment and giving him advice over how to not worsen the things, promising that he will bring a new medicine tomorrow. Tony hadn’t said anything, but it’d had to be clear that he was desperate enough to take it without a second thought now.

For the rest of the day he laid down, feeling tired and sleepy, he covered his body with the veil and brought his knees close to his chin. Few hours later he terribly regretted not making the tea first, because now he was shaking badly and the sun was long time gone from the sky.

He managed to get up after the initial struggle and tangled in the veil he slowly made his way towards the bag with herbs. Wong had said they would help. He had to trust him or he will lose his teeth from clattering very soon.

The night was warm, but Tony couldn’t feel it. His body was heavy and head pounding, but he forced himself into work – setting up the fire, preparing the herbs, eating a piece of exotic looking fruit. The only task left was going for the water.

Tony couldn’t even properly express how he hated himself for not doing so the first time when he had gone for the herbs. At the moment he was hardly walking, his skin felt hot and he was dizzy. Deep down he knew that he had to keep moving and getting on his feet and back to the cave, but suddenly he found himself kneeling on the shore of the lake with a small kettle and unsure of how to proceed.

He was so exhausted from everything. From stupid Wong giving him lectures, from beasts behaving oddly accommodating, from those damn little birds pulling at his clothes… even now.

He made a move with his hand to scare them away. It didn’t work.

“What… do you want?” Gods, his voice sounded awful. He coughed to clear his throat. A bad move.

Tony’s entire chest started to burn and he gasped for air. The hand, which had gripped the kettle, let go and landed instead on the metal over his heart. Damn. That hurt. Everything hurt. And all he wanted was to get few more hours of sleep. Maybe he could lie right here, at the bank. It was summer after all, he won’t freeze to death. And when he’ll wake up, he’ll make the tea. Yeah. That was a good plan. Why those damn birds won’t leave him be?

He curled into the ball, the veil wrapping around his body. The trembling got much worse in a next hour.

\---

Wong was eating his dinner in silence. He knew that Stephen was anxious, unrestful for the news, but he hadn’t asked yet, so Wong was quiet – enjoying his sufferance for a little bit. Who could blame him?

“Did he try to run today?”  
A knowing smile wasn’t perhaps what the other man wanted to see.  
“Several times.” Wong filled his mouth with cooked vegetable.  
“He wasn’t successful, I suppose.”  
“No.”

A pause and then an irritated sigh.  
“Talk.”  
“Since you asked so nicely.”

Wong put away now empty bowl and looked at his companion across the fire.  
“I can’t say those were real running attempts. He is in the testing phase. He is gathering information and acting on it, pushing more and more each day.”  
“He hasn’t entered the forest, has he?”

Was there worry Wong heard in that question? Worry masked with a lot of cold, hard, cocky tones?  
“No, the birds are keeping him away. And you built the protection walls around the clearing,” Wong gently reminded, aware that it cost a lot of Stephen’s energy to do so.  
“To keep creatures from entering, not him from running away.”  
“He isn’t that stupid.”  
“He doesn´t have the whole picture,” Stephen added and Wong stayed somehow surprised that the man knew so much about their guest to presume he knew how that blacksmith’s brain worked.

Oh, yes, that reminded him of something.

“I found out who he is.”  
Another pause didn’t last as long as the last one.  
“You mean on the top of being the most stubborn, careless, egoistic and rude person ever walking this forest?”

Wong raised one eyebrow.  
“Now you’re talking about him or yourself?”

A one glare was enough for Wong’s smile to slowly disappear.  
“I apologize.”

No, he didn’t. They were far pass the petty pleasantries.

“His name is Anthony Edward Stark,” Wong started, gazing straight into Stephen’s glowing eyes, “and yes, we are talking about THAT Stark.”  
“The royal armorer?”

Wong nodded.  
“Yes. That was before. The last few years he has lived in the northern village. From what I heard he isn’t a very prominent figure. He has his workshop and build things, but people say that he has never sold any weapon to anyone. He is living away from others, having only two close friends. Many other tried to get to him, but failed. That probably explains why he was taken here in such a violent manner.”

Wong could only imagine that while person builds the best weapons in the whole country, he knows how to wield one.

“They had to come for him in numbers. The drugs they used were very strong. I would say, if they had used any more, they would have killed him. The villagers clearly feared what would happen if he had woken up sooner than when he was in chains and not able to defend himself.”

Wong liked the reaction he saw his words had on Stephen. His whole body tensed and screamed with anger.

“Why him?”  
“I’m not sure. No one wanted to speak about it. Not in details at least. It seemed like the poor man helped people a lot, anyone who would come to him. Some of them didn’t even know, that it was him, who was taken.”

Stephen seemed to be lost in his own thoughts for a moment. Just like usually, he didn’t share them aloud.  
“Why they chose a man this time?”  
Wong pursed his lips. “Because you prefer men?”  
“They don’t know that. And besides, I haven’t been preferring anyone for a long time.”  
“Maybe too long.”

The both of them shared a look, then Wong picked up a cup and sipped from it.  
“His father could be a problem. He is still in a royal service. Howard Stark. If the message reaches him, he will probably come.”

Stephen hummed. “He won’t find him.”  
“No, he won’t,” Wong agreed, still wondering what was Stephen planning to do next, when the urgent chirps disturbed the moment and Wong turned his head towards the gang of small alarmed birds making their way towards the fire.

“What is it?” he asked watching Stephen turning visibly paler.  
“It’s him. The idiot passed out at the river bank.”  
Wong swallowed the guilt of not mentioning the sorry state of their prisoner sooner.

“What do you want to do?”  
“What do you think?” The man stood up and his enormous velvet wings spread around his form.  
“I’m going to finally meet my bride.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The week passed and I hope you are still hooked up to this story! :) Let me know what you think and what would you like to see in the next chapters. I gladly let myself be inspired by my amazing readers! Love, comments and kudos are much appreciated.
> 
> My [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ironstrangerule).


	4. Stubborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A first meeting!

Tony hardly perceived that he was being carried. Somehow it didn’t make sense. His feet felt like they were flying. But that was hardly possible if Wong dragged them behind him. That would be understandable in his state. But this wasn’t how it happened.

He was being carried.

In a pair of strong soft arms.

\---

“Don’t. I will do it.”  
Wong watched Stephen freeze above Anthony’s body, his hands hovering near the man’s injured and now openly displayed wrists. The bandage laid at the side.  
“I will do it.”

Stubborn idiot.  
It wasn’t easy to bite his tongue and ignore that stupid statement. Wong, however, knew better than to put up a fight right now. The monk sighed and kneeled beside Stephen helplessly watching as his friend flinched when his claws started to change into fingers. Long, beautiful, scarred fingers.

Wong offered him the ointment, pretending that he didn’t see the strain on the bird-king’s forehead and how badly those newly formed hands were shaking. It had to be painful. Extremely painful.  
“Please, Stephen.”  
“No.”

He continued to apply the medicine into the inflamed skin in silence. Perhaps so he could focus on the task. Wong left him, his own attention running to the man on the cot. He looked peaceful, but that was only an appearance. In reality, his wholly body was shutting down from the high temperature and infection.

He will feel better in few hours.

With the ointment, herbs and water they poured into him, Anthony should be okay by the morning. Hopefully with a learnt lesson. Still, Stephen’s hands will hurt for days after.

“I can’t let him go.”  
Wong’s head turned at the sudden sound.  
“I know.”

It was hard to ignore how much Anthony wanted to go home, to return to his village, but they dimply had to.

“What is it there? On his chest?”  
Wong only noticed now. There was a blue dim light emerging from behind the tunic. He made few small steps, reaching out and tugging at the clothing.

The truth was even after seeing the strange device attached to the man’s chest, he wasn’t any wiser.  
“Oh, gods,” he swore at the same time as Stephen suck the air into his lungs.  
“It is embedded in his sternum. What? How?” Wong was completely lost for words for a long moment, rolling all kind of possible explanations in his head, until the device was suddenly covered by long trembling fingers. Hidden under the clothing again.

Wong looked up at Stephen’s unreadable face.  
“We have no right.”  
Wong nodded.  
“Yes.”

But then…  
… he remembered something. Something, which made him furrow his brows and pursed his lips in a hard thought.

His eyes fell back on the spot on the man’s chest and then they frantically turned to Stephen at his side.  
“What?”  
Wong breathed out the words in one silent plea to the gods that he was right, that it was actually happening.  
“The prophecy.”

The silence, which fell over them was slowly interrupted by Stephen shaking his head as soon as he understood.  
“No, it is not real. You know it is not real.”  
“I know that it is a heritage left by your people for you, whether you believe it or not. And this…”

Wong looked at Anthony with so much hope that it was impossible Stephen could miss it.  
“No, stop it. He is not the one. There is not THE ONE to start with.”

Stephen began to dress Anthony’s wrists into the clean straps - so gently that Wong had to fight the urge to point at it. It looked like he was doing it unconsciously. Like his body knew better than to hurt the man by any harsh or quick treatment.

“The prophecy,” Wong pronounced carefully again, noticing the twitch in Stephen’s shoulders, “says you will get a bride with a light in his heart and iron in his veins. The one who will help you…”  
Stephen interrupted him sooner than he could finish, clearly disturbed, although he tried to hide it.  
“You say his heart and his veins, because you want it to be him, this man.”

Wong snorted, but it wasn’t a happy sound.  
“No, I’m saying what I’m saying because that is the original text and you know it. The prophecy mentions a man, not woman.”

It was hard to tell how much Wong could say until Stephen would snap and just draw away from him, but something was telling him he won’t run away from this so easily.

“You want to tell me that you are not curious at all?”  
Stephen sighed loudly after a moment, closing his eyes.  
“Could you just leave it be? I know you want to help me. You want some kind of a miracle to happen so everything could go like the things were before. So long ago.” He opened them again and for few seconds there was so much pain that Wong shivered and horribly regretted even mentioning the thing. “You do not remember it, because you haven’t lived in that time and I don’t remember it, because I chose not to. I can’t.”

Stephen gazed back on his hands and he stayed like that for some time.  
“I am broken. And no prophecy will ever fix that. You have to let it go. Stop torturing me with something, what can’t be true.”

Wong hasn’t spoken again. He knew his advice wasn’t welcomed anymore.

They waited until the morning. Wong slept for few hours during the night and when he woke up he found Stephen watching Anthony with his hand over the man’s shoulder. It seemed like a comfort gesture.

Maybe a nightmare was the cause? Fever was known to bring those. Wong didn’t let Stephen know that he was awake for that moment and rather closed his eyes again.

When the time of their departure came, the sun was already up on the sky and Anthony’s sickness was almost gone. The man had better color, he breathed regularly and the wounds looked much healthier. Stephen let Wong change the bandage this time, after he’d realized his hands won’t cooperate anymore. After the whole night they shook so badly, he couldn’t even lift Anthony’s hand.

While performing the task, Wong figured a hard truth he wasn’t really aware of until now.

Far harder than watching Stephen being stubborn was watching him simply accept his defeat.

\---

Tony opened his eyes into the light of the setting sun. Probably not for the first time that day. The smell of something delicious lurked him awake even further. He groaned when he tried to turn to that direction, but found out he was unable to - thanks to the unexpected weight pinning his body to the cot.

“Wha…?”  
The bright red cloak shifted and Tony blinked several times. Yes. Fever. He had to still have the fever. He was delirious. Because that freaking cloak could not move!

Contrary to his clever persuasions, the fabric turned two of its corners towards his face, aiming for his forehead.  
“Hey, hey!”  
The panic died as soon as he understood the much sentient cloak was only trying to take his temperature, just as Wong had done the other day.

Wong.

Oh.

He had had to be here. Probably had taken care of his sorry ass. Tony made a mental note to thank him later, but first he had to get away from the deathly embrace of yet another living, otherwise inanimate object.  
“Oh, come on, it’s warm. I’m good. I need to eat.”

The cloak seemed to understand and let go. Tony inspected his wounds, finding them in a far better state than he could wish for. The fresh ointment, herbs and cooked food was waiting on him in the corner and somehow he found it fascinating that Wong did this despite him being nothing than a rude brat to him.

He started to eat thinking hard about the reason behind all of this.

Why not to let him simply die? They had to have some use for him then. But what? Why to keep him here if the beast clearly didn’t want to meet with him? He was confused. But also hungry. Definitely more hungry than confused.

Tony eyed the strange cloak again. It was eh… sitting? Yes, sitting in front of the entrance radiating mixed signals of what could be perhaps translated as “I am watching you” and “Come, I want to play with you”. Tony ignored it.

Trees. Now cloaks. This was really crazy. At least he was quite used to new, odd, sometimes impossible things around him. Some of those happening quite often in his own workshop.

This cloak, however, reminded him of something. Only if he could say what it was…

After eating, Tony found out that he was in a desperate need of a bath. And luckily, there was just a nice lake sufficient to this purpose.

He felt a bit self conscious about losing his clothes on the shore and get into the water naked. Although Wong left him new neatly folded next to his head, Tony was skeptical about the effectiveness of getting clean while still clothed. No matter the fact that he could get his old ritual robes wet now.

With the last sun’s beams he dived naked into the water, ignoring the cloak tailing him the whole time until that moment. He planned to enjoy his quality time, but not too away from the shore. Water still wasn’t his best friend, though it indulged far less dread in him than it used to. With the help of his hands he applied what seemed to be some kind of a plant extract left for him into his hair and then over his body. The sun played nice warm tones on his skin and made it look all shiny while he was sure he´d looked nothing like that yesterday.

He was invested in himself so much that he noticed something was wrong much later than he should have.

Tony shivered under the watch of the intense eyes following his every move. After taking few breaths and freezing on the spot, he could very well say it was not the weird cloak. Without his intention, his dump brain signaled to his body to turn and so he did.

Tony, covered with water to his waist, finally met face to face with the beast.

\---

They stood without any movement for some time. Neither speaking or trying for an approach. Tony was still slightly shivering, unable to stop the reaction caused by those yellowish bright eyes gazing straight at him.

The beast… the demon… now that Tony could see it… him… he was…  
impossibly beautiful.

The thought was piercing and shocking in its nature. It crashed every wall Tony had built around the image of the creature in his mind until now. He would like to claim that he remembered ugly monstrous face and stooped old figure from the cave. But that would be a lie.

No.

As the claws had raised the veil from his head, his eyes had met with stunningly handsome face. Similar to human and not beastly at all.

Another long moment passed. Then Tony closed his mouth unaware he had it open.

“Why are you here?” he asked, his voice not as strong as it was in his head. Even if it didn’t seem more likely, he still feared the creature might have come to end him after all.

He watched the figure as the broad shoulders moved under the long red wings and the blank face furrowed a bit.  
“I came to take what’s mine.”  
Tony’s heart left out few beats.  
“And talk. I came to talk.”

He let out the air he´d held in his chest. Talk. He could do talking. Gods, he expected some mindless creature to deal with. How was he going to work with this?

Tony started to walk to the shore, only later realizing that he was still very much naked and he blushed in his cheeks. Well, he wasn’t about to ask him to turn around, but he didn’t plan to provoke him either. He held the beast’s eyes until he was out of the water, reaching for the veil, he wrapped it around his waist. That will have to do for now.

Tony still decided to walk to the cave for the rest of his clothes. He didn’t feel comfortable to have his chest exposed even despite that the creature had seemed to avoid the look at the reactor. Returning back to the shore, he approached cautiously.

“Release me.” Was the first thing coming to his mind and his mouth happily obligated into vocalizing the thought aloud.

The beast pursed his lips, but stayed silent.

“Do you have a name?” Tony asked after a while with no indication that he would get any answer to his demand. The silence again was so long that he thought maybe the beast won’t answer anything he will ask.

“My name is old, hard to pronounce for humans.” The deep baritone forced goosebumps over Tony’s skin.  
“Wong calls me Stephen. But I do not expect the same familiarity with you. Your kind gave me a lot of names, use one of them, if you must.”

The red demon. Bird-king. Monster. Bastard from the woods. None of those names appropriate for a decent conversation. Stephen will it be then.

“Release me,” Tony repeated, his tone half-resolute, half-pleading.  
“Every twenty years a new bride. You can’t possible need so many. And as you can see, there was a mistake. You surely didn’t want… this.” Tony loosely pointed at himself, shaking his head. “Please, release me. I won’t tell anyone about this place.”

The creature… no, Stephen…

Stephen kept staring in his eyes, maybe trying to find a lie in there and failing.

“You would really be silent about my whereabouts when people would pay you a great fortune for a chance to kill me?”  
“Yes.”

Looking at him, it was hard to picture this odd, exotic beauty as a demon plaguing the soil and everything living around, dragging people into the forest and hiding their bodies where no one could ever find them. But that was what this creature did. Tony would better remember that.

Whether he was surprised by Tony’s answer or not, he hid it well. Tony could not say.

“I am sorry, but I can’t release you.”  
And just like that all of Tony’s hopes were shattered to pieces.

“Then we have nothing to talk about,” he replied coldly. His disappointment almost overwhelming him for a moment. Where this left him? What he could do?

“Will you kill me now?” Tony stretched tall and with a silent acceptance. “Because I will never become yours willingly.”  
_I came to take what’s mine._

“I won’t kill you,” the beast said after a moment, emphasizing every word, “nothing will harm you until you are here. I will not force you to be with me in any way, but I can not let you go either.”

What?  
What did that mean?  
Tony was puzzled, unsure of anything he thought he knew about his current situation. And as the beast turned away, walking back into the night, he found himself drowning in sorrow and yearning for his home once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, folks!  
> Thank you very much for reading until here. You did a great job and I love you for that. Please, leave me comments and kudos if you have some spare time! (*whispering* Those always make my fingers work faster on the keyboard.)
> 
> Are you ready for the second meeting? :)  
> See you next SUNDAY!
> 
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	5. Not me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony starts to warm up to the idea of Stephen not being the monster he once thought he was. But is that enough for him to ask for a second meeting?

“So you ran.”

“No. I made a clever retreat.”

“You ran.”

An annoyed puff of air escaped from the spot where Stephen sat and Wong turned his head from the tea he was holding near his mouth, eyeing the man, challenging him to deny it one more time.  
“You weren’t even trying, you just made him more angry. More willing to go and try something stupid to get out of here.”

No answer.

“So what are you planning to do with him? Keeping him here for the rest of his life?”  
He again only met with a silence. Now it was Wong who made an annoyed noise.  
“And you went to him with no weapon. Are you crazy? That man can try to kill you, you know that. I would bet he already has something sharp to cut your throat with.”

“He does.”

Was there an amusement hidden between those words?  
“Is this funny to you, Stephen?” Wong shook his head after a moment, continuing to sip from his almost cold tea.  
“How do you even know he has a weapon?”  
“His hand was unconsciously ready to pull it from his pocket when he was speaking to me.”

Wong smirked.  
“Clever man.”  
When he saw Stephen slowly nodding, he scowled.  
“Dangerous man.” It was like telling a child that this you could touch and this you have to be aware of.

“Not as dangerous as me,” Stephen said after a moment. They both stayed silent after that. Their evenings running the same as always.

“Next you should approach him, when he will be clothed. Just an advice,” Wong smirked and stepped away from the fire. He pretended he didn’t hear an angry rumbling behind his back.

\---

Two days passed until Wong came again checking on Tony’s wrists and bringing a covered basket, which he put at his feet. 

“What is it? Snakes?”  
Today Wong had to be in a good mood, because he cracked a smile and then reached down to uncover the strange gift.

Tony kneeled next to the basket slowly reaching inside. There were tools. For wood-work. Even a knife. What the hell?

Tony’s fingers encircled the handle and his eyes snapped suspiciously back to Wong.

“Is this some kind of a test? A joke?”  
“No,” Wong looked at him with a serious expression, “it is something you can put your restless mind into, something, what will hopefully keep you busy.” 

“You are giving me a knife.” Tony pronounced slowly, checking if the other man was aware of what he might do with it.  
“Yes. It is not like you don’t have a weapon already or so I heard.”

Tony immediately wanted to reach inside his pocket, but he stopped in time. Still, Wong looked pleased while confirming his words with Tony’s unguarded movement.   
“I can put that knife at your neck and force you to guide me out of the forest.” Despite what he said, something in his mind was screaming at him that he won’t do it. Not after this man had dragged his ass from the shore of the lake and tended to his wounds probably all night long.

“That would be unwise as you have to remain here for your own protection. The woods are dangerous. You wouldn’t survive there. You have no way how to navigate back home. Please…”

At the last word Tony shivered, because there was something very alarming, threatening and caring in Wong’s tone all at once.  
“Please, don’t try to run away.”

Tony stayed silent, inspecting the knife and turning it over between his fingers.  
“I don’t understand anything.”  
“I know.”  
“So explain.”

Wong pursed his lips, looking remorseful.  
“I can’t.”  
“He won’t let you?” Tony spat, but somehow it lacked the venom. In his mind there was this image stuck with him – the creature which looked almost human, with - oh gods forgive him – cute pointy ears and some form of a permanent ink drawing on his forehead. The velvet wings hiding the broad shoulders and strong, marvelous body. 

No. Stop.

“It is my choice to remain silent of the things I know he doesn’t wish me to speak about,” Wong explained patiently, then turning away when he saw there was no more accusations coming from Tony.  
“Wait!” The blacksmith took the basket and put the knife back inside.  
“Thank you.” 

Wong stopped and nodded.  
“Will you come tomorrow?” 

I’m lonely.

“I will try my best to come and I will show you which trees you can cut down.”

Tony turned away after the uncertain promise, cradling the gifted items in his hands. He was more and more confused about his role here. But now he finally felt at least a little bit above the line, which was reserved only for a sadness and longing.

\---

“So what is the difference between those and those trees? They look the same to me.”  
Tony almost jumped out of his skin when he heard Wong laugh for the first time. Really laugh. What a scary sound.

“Those ones are dead. It is better for a soil if we cut out their bodies. Those ones,” he pointed towards the line of the green monsters, where in the middle - the one which had thrown Tony down the other day - towered above all.   
“Those will kick your ass if you try to get an axe or a knife any near them.”

The wood appeared to be easy and smooth to cut. Tony had never seen a wood like that. It was like cutting the butter. He didn’t even need the axe for the smaller ones. The knife was enough. 

“What will this be?” Wong asked him one day, walking onto him carving.  
“New plates and bowls. Whoever made the previous ones should go and cry in shame.”  
He met with Wong’s half smile and then slid his eyes back to his work.   
“I won’t tell him you said that.”

Tony stopped for a moment, eyes gazing at something in the distance for a moment, then he reached down and grabbed one of the finished bowls.  
“I have no idea if he eats, but tell him I say thanks for the tools and for… for his wings.”

Wong looked momentarily surprised, but then his face cleared like he expected Tony to put the dots together all along.  
“So you figured it out.”  
“That he left his wings with me? The wings which actually turn into the sentient cloak when it’s not on him? Is this what it is?”

He wasn’t really sure how it worked. But the annoying cloak had disappeared the same day as their confrontation happened. And he… Stephen… he’d said that he came for what was his. But he hadn’t touched Tony. There was no other explanation. That beautiful velvet color was the same. 

So it probably hadn’t been only Wong tending to him. Tony had no idea where that left him.

“I will pass your message.” Wong decided to ignore the questions on the cloak or wings or whatever that was and Tony for once didn’t force him into the answers.  
“You’ll come tomorrow?”  
He used to ask that a lot.

He never did well when he was isolated and spent a lot of time alone just with his head. Although he kind of accepted, that there was no easy way from the woods at least for now, he still yearned for his friends and someone to talk to.

Wong would always answer the same.  
He will try to.   
And he always came.

\---

“So how the two of you met?”  
No answer.  
“Too private? Okay, so how did you appear in this forest?” Tony frowned. “Were you his bride too?”

That seemed to be a right question to ask as Wong spilled out the tea he was drinking in a very unceremonial way.  
“No, gods, no!”  
Tony smiled at the reaction he managed to draw out of the man.

“I am a child of what your people call a demon and a bride.”

Now it was Tony’s turn to look up in surprise.   
“You must know that once there were a lot of such unions made and they were made willingly. Not as a sacrifice.”

Tony eyed Wong, curious.  
“No, actually, I don’t know.”  
“You don’t?” For a moment he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. “Yes, people forget quickly. I haven’t been between your kind for a long time, so it might be true.”

Tony had only one question on his mind, biting. What happened? But on that Wong didn’t give him any hint.  
“Why are you with him then?”

“Because he saved my life,” Wong simply stated. “I owe him and I have no place to call home only the one he has been sharing with me.”

\---

Tony has started to count days. It’s been two weeks and three days since he was taken from his house. The alarming thing was that during those last days he was engaged in his work so much that he hadn’t even thought about running away. 

Every day Wong came and spent few hours with him, sometimes talking, sometimes listening to Tony’s rambling about his workshop and how he missed the fire of his forge. Each time Tony tried to drag some information out of the man, but he failed more than he succeeded in this task. 

“So is he really a killer? Is he haunting onto people in that forest?”  
“He kills when he musts,” Wong said after a long moment and that was one of the rare times when Tony actually received his answer. For a few seconds he had no idea what to do with that.

“But he kills innocent too…”  
Tony sounded unsure to his own ears and the feeling even deepened when he saw Wong’s smirk.  
“I think you know the answer to that.”  
He did.  
But it made no sense.

\---

“Tell him to come.”  
“What?”

Tony took a sip of his tea. It tasted bad. He’d prepared it.

“Tell him to come.”

\---

It was a stupid idea.  
Tony had yelled at himself many times over for even thinking about something so stupid. The creature had avoided him until now and now Tony willingly invited him to visit. He had to be really desperate. Gods, he probably was.

The evening was slowly approaching and just like any other day Tony sat on the small pier he built, reaching from the shore few meters into the lake. It was crazy how many things he has made since he had received the tools, and built new ones according to his liking, but it was all he could do around here. 

The birds were currently hopping next to him, chirping to get his attention so he would throw them crumbs of bread he was holding in his hands. When they weren’t trying to jab his eyes out any near the forest border, they were quite good companions.

“One more week and you’re going to be all on my side, you little devils.” Tony smirked, throwing a handful of bread under their small feet.

“I doubt that.”

Tony turned around so quickly that he almost ended up in the water behind. 

There he was. 

Tony tried not to stare, because the creature was really stunning in the setting sun, and the last thing he needed was to become distracted. His thoughts ran towards the knife in his pocket. 

“They are very loyal.”   
“Huh?”

The birds started to jump happily around Stephen’s feet and Tony sighed. He might have been right.   
“Just like Wong, I suppose. Like everything in this forest.”

Stephen probably didn’t take his comment as an offense, but neither he sat down. He looked around, his deep glowing eyes settling on the finely lit cave.  
“You made some adjustments. Wong told me you are very skilled. A blacksmith.”

None of those were questions, but Tony still found himself answering.  
“I made a bed, a table, few chairs, a place to store things. The previous owner was a minimalist.” Tony snickered and to his big surprise there was also a ghost of the smile on Stephen’s face.  
“True. The previous owner never needed much and wasn’t any near your level of skill.”

Tony didn’t know what to do with the compliment so he stayed silent. His eyes sliding towards Stephen’s hands. He expected hands with actual fingers – who knows why - but there were only claws. Maybe with a magic it could be done, but otherwise those claws weren’t probably fit for this kind of work.

“Please, sit down, you are making me nervous,” Tony spat finally, letting the easy tone made its way into his voice instead of an uncertainty he felt.

Stephen stared at him for some time until he took the offer, still maintaining the healthy distance. Why was he maintaining the distance?

“What is it with me?”  
“I beg your pardon?”

Wow. What a nice vocabulary for someone living in the forest.

“I had to literally call for you so you would come. I don’t understand. You could basically do anything with me. Why to keep me here if you… are obviously not interested?”  
Oh, he formulated this so wrong, but there was no taking it back now.

“I thought that you preferred it this way. Me staying away.” 

Tony knew that was true, but he didn’t say it aloud. He had preferred it that way. Until yesterday. With all the information Wong had shared with him consciously or by an accident, it was hard to really not get curious.

“You don’t want another bride or you just don’t want a man?” Or me – stayed unsaid.

After few long seconds Tony started to worry that he won’t get his answer. Just like with Wong so many times.  
“I’ve never asked for the brides or sacrifices. It was your people who keep sending someone in order to ease my wrath.”

Tony inspected his face closely. There was something very wrong with that answer, only if he could find out what.  
“You could send me back and I would tell them,” he tried his luck one more time.  
Stephen, however, looked colder and more withdrawn each passing second. That wasn’t a good approach then.

“Okay, let’s talk about something different as I can sense your answer hasn’t changed from the last time. What is this prophecy thing?”

Tony could swear he saw him flinching, but the emotions which rushed into the creature’s eyes were gone sooner than he could read them.  
“Wong should have not mentioned it.” Was that anger? Something else?  
“I kind of tricked him into it. It’s not his fault.”   
“I can bet you did.” And now it seemed like he had amused him somehow. Tony really felt crazy with the atmosphere constantly changing.

“So what is that about? I take it as it has something to do with me?”

Tony remained starring when he saw Stephen sigh – such a human thing to do – looked extremely good on him.

“It has nothing to do with you, because it is not about you.” There was a certain resolution in that answer.  
“Wong thinks otherwise.”  
“Wong should know better.”  
“Humor me.”

Now their positions exchanged. It was Stephen who openly stared, probably contemplating about what to say or if to say something at all.

“Everyone of my kind receives a prophecy when we are born. They are written down and in some point of our lives it should be fulfilled.”  
Tony frowned. “You sound like you don’t believe they do. Has it sometimes failed to fulfill?”

“No.” The answer was immediate. “But mine is different. It promises things I know are impossible.”  
Whatever those things were, Tony had a feeling, it was a waste of time to ask.  
“So what it has to do with me?”

When nothing happened for a quite some time, he whined.  
“Come on, you owe me that much.”  
Stephen probably came to the same conclusion, because he decided to continue.   
“If you must know, the prophecy promises me a bride, who will make great changes to the world by my side.”  
“Does it mention who it should be?”

Tony suddenly felt thrilled, but he forbad himself from searching out the reason.  
“There are… some attributes mentioned, yes.”   
It was the first time when he wavered in his answer like that.  
“Does it look like it could be me?” Tony asked before he could think better of it.

Their eyes met. Something tickled Tony in his stomach, but he again refused to pay attention to the sensation.

“Yes.”

A very simple answer to the problem, which was perhaps very difficult in its core.  
“Does it say how you can know for sure?”

Once more those pierceful eyes found his and for a moment Tony felt like he stopped breathing.  
“Yes. There is a mention about a certain feeling which is awoken by this other person and is like nothing else those two people have ever felt. But there is a stimulation required for this to happen.”

“What stimulation?”  
Tony tried to pretend there weren’t goosebumps running over his back.  
“Because if it should b´…”  
“A kiss.”

Tony shut his mouth.  
“What?”

“A kiss is the stimulation. The prophecy says this feeling either awakes or not after the first kiss.”  
Tony made a grimace.  
“A bit like a fairy-tale, isn’t it?”  
Something what could be only described as a smug expression formed on his visitor’s face.  
“You mean like living in a magical forest with a demon?”

Tony smirked.  
“Fair enough.”

He really regretted he had no more bread in his hand, so he could do at least something with his hands.  
“You want to try it?”

Oh, my… he was really becoming mentally unstable. Did he really say that?

Firstly he didn’t dare to look up into those capturing eyes, but then the silence stretched so uncomfortably that he just had to.

“I mean… that way you would know for certain it is not me. You could go and have a win dance in front of Wong and piss the guy of.”  
Despite the fact that we both cracked a smile at the end of my suggestion, the air around was heavy.

“You would be willing to kiss me?”  
Why the hell did he sound like it should be the greatest tragedy in the world and most disgusting thing a one could do? Did he ever look at himself?

Yes, it was true that Tony wasn’t fun of his situation. But the reason was only that he didn’t take well when being forced to stay at the place where he didn’t want to be. But other than that, neither Stephen nor Wong did anything to hurt him. Quite the opposite. The only people, who actually managed to hurt him, were villagers.

If he had met Stephen at any other circumstances… 

Tony was sure he could have overlooked that Stephen wasn’t human after some time. His fear of being forced to be with someone he didn’t chose, slowly evaporated as he learnt that Stephen wasn’t interested in this. Tony was still cautious, yes. He didn’t believe in people very much lately, but here the actions were speaking rather than words.

“It’s not such a hard task, you are handsome,” Tony said and this time he didn’t regret his over-expressive wording, because the emotion he saw at the face in front of him was an opposite to a disbelieving tone Stephen had used before. It was worth it.

Still, the truth was that he was at disadvantage. He couldn’t know how demons like Stephen worked. He remembered the knife in his pocket. His and Stephen’s eyes went there at the same time.

“You can pull the weapon out, if it makes you feel any better.” That wasn’t mocking, but a true genuine offer. Tony went with it. He squeezed the knife in his hand, suddenly feeling guilty.   
“I won’t use it, if you won’t try any dirty moves.”  
“Good,” he agreed.  
“So are we going to try now?”

Stephen took a deep breath.  
“It would certainly make my life more bearable, if Wong just shut his mouth about this prophecy.”  
Tony smiled.  
“And it would scratch out one reason why I should be kept here.” Tony believed there were more, but Wong’s reason was perhaps mainly about this.

“Okay, this is maybe awkward, but necessary.” Tony moved with his butt and legs over to where Stephen sat, close enough that they could touch, if both of them leaned in.  
“More awkward than having a knife held over your neck while you kiss someone?”  
Tony laughed. And it was a strange moment, because he shouldn’t be laughing. But Stephen was actually funny. It all made him only more confused.

“Ready?” he asked, feeling Stephen’s eyes warming with the colors of the setting sun. Both of their sides were now bathed in the soft light, when they turned to face each other.  
“Ready.”

Gods, he was only making it more odd with those questions. He should just kiss him and be over it. 

But looking at this demon, he suddenly seemed as vulnerable as Tony felt.  
“Close your eyes,” Tony said in a low, calming voice, hoping it would help. “And don’ t mind the knife, of course.  
The joke worked as Stephen’s lips stretched in a small smile, eyes closed.  
Okay. Here we are. Just proving that it’s not me. Everything will be fine. No need to feel nervous.

Tony closed his eyes on the instinct, when he felt the other’s lips on his. The softness and sweet taste, much sweeter than anything he had ever tasted. For a moment nothing happened and then suddenly everything happened at once. He moved and took a lead for few seconds, then withdrawing few inches, then more and more, until he was sitting back at his original position. 

Breathless, with butterflies in his stomach, blinking the haze away. He almost smiled.

But then he realized there was no feeling he could call “a prophecy fulfilling one”. His mouth opened and suddenly he felt so lost and unsure of why he wanted this at the first place. He had stupidly asked for this.

“Anthony,” the low baritone was tearing his heart apart and Tony didn’t know why.   
“Are you alright?”

No, he wasn’t. Gods, what was happening?

“It’s not me,” he said slowly.   
“It’s not me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extremely long chapter for my beloved readers! Yeey. Finally some questions answered.
> 
> Thank you so, so much for all of your support! Reading your sweet comments always make me grin like an idiot for hours. Please, if you have a spare time, don't forget to express your thoughts again! It creates a great motivation to work for me.
> 
> Love you! :*****


	6. Natural

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony does two stupid things and then one very wise decision.

“Anthony,” his name was called out several times while he was swiftly walking back to the shore. His eyes stung and his breath stayed stuck somewhere on the way from his nose to his lungs without the means to return to him any time soon. Fuck. He was so stupid. So, so stupid. What had he thought? Why was this even affecting him so much.

He wanted this outcome. He prayed for it. 

So why was he feeling like something deep inside of him was dying and all he wanted to do was curl up somewhere and cry? 

A sudden pressure appeared on his hand and then he was pulled back and around fast enough that he couldn’t properly react. His confused eyes met with the glowing ones, full of emotions, which were impossible to comprehend. For a moment neither of them spoke and Tony almost drown in their impossible depths.

“Let me go,” Tony pleaded with a weak voice, jerking his hand away, but to no avail. It stayed how it was – in the firm grip.  
“No.”  
Fuck. What did he want? For Tony to beg him? For whatever insane reason it was painful even looking at him. Tony needed to get away, to understand all of this.  
“It didn’t work out, it’s over. You can go and play hide and seek again. I don’t nee…”

He didn’t get a chance to finish as Stephen hushed him.  
“Just stop for a moment,” he said almost too gently. And then he added something, which made Tony’s brain stop completely. 

“The prophecy says it should be me who kiss the bride, not the other way around.”

Tony stared at him dumbly.   
“What?”  
“I said…”  
Now it was Tony who didn’t let him finish, turning his head to the side laughing bitterly.  
“No, stop that. This is bullshit. How could it matter who kiss who. It’s all jus…”

Whatever game they played with interrupting one another, this time Stephen certainly won. Seeing that he couldn’t make him shut up, he simply pulled at Tony’s hand, dragging him forwards until their lips collided once more and both men moaned into the connection.

Uh.  
Gods.  
No.  
Yes.  
No.  
More.

Tony might have been truly dying before, because now he felt like he was in heaven. All of those crazy things and feels he had when they had kissed for the first time returned, but at least 10 times stronger. They hit him so hard that his legs decided not to hold him up anymore and he ended on the ground along with Stephen, who just wouldn’t let him go.

His hands twitched uncontrollably, yearning to touch, to explore and so Tony let them.

He reached into his hair, grabbed the side of his neck, pulled him impossible closer. The air seemed redundant. Everything faded away as unimportant, but him, his lips, his tongue slowly licking over Tony’s teeth, asking for the entrance. 

More. 

And oh, fuck, Tony allowed it.

He moaned again. Loud. And then the sound was cut off. He felt the strong arms cradling him close and he felt so warm, safe and… 

loved.

No.   
No.  
This was wrong.  
Wrong even when it felt so right.

Tony had to force his hands to let go of where they were desperately holding onto Stephen’s shoulders. He pulled away, suddenly feeling more confused than before, wary… afraid. This was magic. This wasn’t him. It couldn’t be.

“You… what have you done? What?” He knew he wasn’t coherent and the space he put between them, when they parted, felt like a punch to the stomach.

That only freaked him out more.

“What? This is not me. This… Magic. It’s not us.”

Stephen seemed completely put out, but slowly he started to understand what was Tony implying. And after Tony had dragged himself clumsily back on his feet, Stephen followed.

“No. Wait. It’s not like that…”

Tony was shaking his head, making few steps back as he was talking. The knife returned to his hand from where it fell when it had all started.

“Don’t. This is wrong… I shouldn’t feel like this. It’s not natural.” 

He couldn’t even describe what he felt. There was so much affection awakening, but at the same time he felt like it wasn’t his at all. Because that was impossible, right?

When Stephen made another step forward, he raised the hand with the weapon and immediately hated himself for that gesture when seeing the hurt flashed in the other man’s eyes. He wasn’t sure if he could use it even if he wanted to. Only the thought made him feel sick. Made him feel like he would rather stab himself than attack the creature before him.

That…   
was terrifying. 

“Go. Please, go.” Because I can’t even protect myself.   
The demon… man… Stephen… his face was strained, those sweet puffy lips slightly open like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. He looked broken. 

But he moved nonetheless. Walked around Tony with his hands up. Hands… Real hands with actual fingers. Was he able to transform them? When did he do it? It had to be before he had touched Tony.

From up that close he could see how badly they were shaking and all Tony wanted to do was to drop that damn knife and cradle them into his own palms. He put all his strength into staying where he was. 

And Stephen slowly turned around. Walked away like Tony had asked him to do. Their eyes met one more time when he looked around and Tony felt like someone tore away his insides. With every step the demon had taken, the feeling became worse until Tony fell back to the ground. The knife tumbling away from his fingers like it had burnt him.

His breath was coming in quick panic intakes and there were tears in his eyes, making him see everything blurry. 

That night he stayed sleeping outside right there on the spot.   
Curled to himself and shaking.  
The birds came to him and brought the veil from the cave.

That made it so much worse.

\---

Wong jumped out on his feet when he saw Stephen returning back. There was something very wrong with him, he could sense it the same moment his eyes had laid on the figure. 

“Wh…” Wong shut his mouth when he got a glimpse of his face.   
Oh, gods. It was true.   
He had done it. 

They had proved that the prophecy was real. Wong could feel the new bond formed, so strong that it was radiating from Stephen’s skin in waves. 

“Stephen,” he called tentatively, because there was also something else radiating from the demon. An immense and heart-breaking suffering. The emotions were so deep and strong in their nature that they almost made Wong sway on his feet.

Stephen ignored his approach, but when Wong tried to catch his arm, the demon gasped in pain and Wong immediately let go.  
“Sorry, gods… I’m sorry, Stephen,” he blurted out, shocked that he saw Stephen’s hands, even when he was sure, he had seen him with claws before he’d left.  
“You… you changed… You shouldn’t…”

There was no time for this. 

He saw Stephen’s fingers cramping and his eyes closing. For a moment he froze on the spot not even breathing.

Wong immediately led him to sit near the fire, searching frantically for the warming oil he knew was somewhere around.  
For the rest of the night he sat with the demon. Wong tried to ease down the pain he was in with every means possible wondering about what went wrong.

He had hoped that Anthony would be the hope Stephen needed in his life.   
His stone to lean on.  
He didn’t want him to be the cause of even more pain and misery.

It was his fault.  
His fault.

\---

Tony woke up during the night with a startle. He was covered in cold sweat and with the veil squeezed between his fingers. He had had a nightmare. And this time he couldn’t even tell himself it wasn’t real, because it was.

His brain had played for him everything that had happened in the evening with a one small difference, which meant everything.

The knife ended in Stephen’s heart. 

Tony woke up feeling like the arc reactor is giving out and he had to literally check whether it was still functioning how it should.

The birds were soundly sleeping around him and for a moment a crazy idea sprung into his head. That might be his chance. 

He’d never seen the birds sleeping before. And he… damn… he needed to be away from the place. He wanted to see Rhodey and Pepper. 

Pepper always knew what to do.  
She would tell him that he was crazy and that those feelings will evaporate eventually. That in few days he won’t remember those lips moving on his.  
There wasn’t anything to worry about.   
He would be fine.  
He just needed to get away.

He carefully stood up, taking the veil with him as the air around was much colder than during the day. He needed to make some noise to gather the things he needed and for that he had to ensure the birds will stay where they were.

He almost felt guilty when he put a cage around their sleeping bodies.

He had prepared it the first thing after he’d received the knife, last days almost forgetting it was still in the cave.

The birds started to stir and then few woke up and started to chirp. Alarmed.  
“I’m sorry. I… I need to go. Don’t worry. He will come and get you all out of there.”  
It was hard to leave when the chirp only grew louder and more distressing while he was approaching the forest.

He knew that there were animals in there. But soon the sun will start to go up and everything will be better. He will find his way after the sunrise. The damn forest had to end somewhere. The stars were no help. But he had watched Wong few times from which side he was entering, so he had at least some direction.

Tony stepped into the forest feeling like it was either that or getting crazy. He had some food and water and hopefully, it will be enough until he’ll meet someone. The darkness wasn’t so thick anymore. Turning from pitch black to dark blue in the last half an hour. The moon was also shining and Tony had a torch with him. 

It will be alright. 

He moved carefully in a one direction leaving marks on the trees just in case he would end up walking in the circles. Tony generally wasn’t afraid of the dark, but the forest has made him feel nervous from the day one. And now he was there. Despite all the warning. He couldn’t return now. No matter how bad the numb feeling in his stomach grew.

He walked for quite some time. Maybe an hour or so. The forest was still the same. And slowly… just slowly he started to realize that he maybe really did a stupid thing. He had no idea how big the place was. Or if the magic forest would even let him out no matter how far he would go.

Tony stopped in the middle of his tracks.  
Looking around.   
Groaning.

“Fuck no.”

For a moment he had really no idea what to do or whether he was still on the road he set for himself. He doubted that he would find his way back even if he wanted to.

He had to go on. Forward.

But then he didn’t move a single muscle.  
Somewhere behind him an animal growled. Deep and angry and Tony froze at the place completely.  
Oh, no. Not this.  
He slowly turned, aiming the torch towards the source of the danger. 

Steps.  
More growling.

Tony braced himself. The cursed knife in one hand, the torch in the other.  
‘Damn. Wong is going to kill me.’ 

Was the last thought Tony had before something big jumped out of the bush and sank its teeth into his leg. 

He screamed.

\---

He woke up with a blinding pain lingering in his whole body. For a moment Tony was scared to open his eyes and find himself being dragged into some beast’s lair. But then he heard a familiar voice and he blinked.

“Wake up, Stark!”   
The tone was harsh and angry and it didn’t sound like Wong at all. But it was. 

Tony was in trouble.  
But he wasn’t being digested in some beast’s belly.   
That was… good.

He blinked some more, realizing that he was laying on his back. Wong’s face moved into his vision.  
“Come and help me.”  
Tony tried. Whatever he should help with. He really tried to get up. But it was almost impossible. Wong kept yelling at him to move his damned ass and Tony wanted to answer, but he was afraid he will vomit if he opens his mouth.

“Stark, I swear to gods, you come here or I will kick you back into the forest.”

Tony crawled on his feet, confused and in so much pain. His head was spinning. He bumped into something. Where was he? House? Cabin? He saw Wong leaning over the body. 

And all of his blood froze to ice.

“Stephen,” Tony called silently.   
The body stirred and then the cry cut the air and Tony screamed too, falling to his knees before Wong came rushing to his side, slowly helping him to lie down.

“I-I’m sorry… Anthony… Uh, gods. I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”  
What?  
What he didn’t know?

Another whimper came from the opposite side of the room and a wave of unbearable pain washed over Tony too in the twisted union.   
“Wait. I will help you.”

Wong forced something in his mouth. Made him chew and swallow. He gave him water and after few second Tony could finally took a proper breath. His vision sharpened again. Wong was holding him upright in a sitting position and now he carefully moved in front of Tony. 

“Can you see me?”  
Tony nodded. Hating himself for the movement just in the next second.  
“Good. In few minutes it will get better.”

Tony almost cried from the relief when the pain really started to subdue a moment later.  
“My-my leg.”  
Tony wanted to take a look, but he still felt so dizzy he rather didn’t.

Wong looked puzzled, worried.  
“It’s not your leg, Anthony. You’re fine.”  
“W-what?”

And then he understood. It all clicked together. His brain connecting the dots.

“It’s Stephen,” Wong said, turning his head. Tony did too.   
The demon’s body seemed restless. A fever?

“The fangs of that… creature were poisonous. He runs a high fever. Do you remember what happened?”  
Tony tried his voice again.   
“I-I remember… going into the woods… growling… something attacking me… my leg.”

No, not his leg. It was Stephen’s.   
Stephen had come and pushed him away. He slowly recalled the fight between the creature and his savior, but he would be happier to forget it.

“It’s my fault.”   
Wong didn’t say anything, but neither he disagreed.  
“I’m so sorry. Is he… He is going to be alright?” Please let him be alright.   
“Yes,” Wong nodded slowly, withdrawing his hands from Tony’s arms. “But he needs help. Are you better now? Do you understand what is happening?”

Tony looked at him for a moment.  
“I’m… I’m feeling his pain?”  
“Yes,” Wong confirmed. “That… connection you shared… it’s the strongest I’ve ever heard about.” Wong looked remorseful. Like he regretted that he yelled at Tony before.  
“With the herbs you took it will get weaker for some time. I need you to help me with him. He is going to get better if you are near. Touching. Can you do that? Please, Anthony?”

He didn’t need to plead with him.  
The truth was Tony would love to go near. His whole body craved for that stupid, stupid demon. Oh, gods, why had he done that? Tony wasn’t worth it.  
“Yes. Please… I need…” he stopped the flow of words, but it was too late for avoiding Wong’s curious look.  
“What? What do you need?”

Tony looked him in the eyes, unable to deny.  
“I need him close.”  
Wong’s lips slowly spread into a smile.  
“Good.”

He helped Tony on his feet, letting him sit down next to Stephen’s warm body. There were drops of sweat on his forehead and the first thing Tony did was that he caressed that face. He couldn’t help himself. Not even when he knew Wong was looking. 

Stephen moved and a relieved sigh escaped his mouth. Some of the tension returning immediately as Tony started to pull his hand away. 

So he didn’t.

The hand stayed there. On his face, in his hair, near his jaw and neck and Tony curled on Stephen’s side, falling asleep just as he felt the body next to him relax. 

It felt right.   
It felt natural.  
Like nothing ever had in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for a delay! :) 
> 
> Something came up yesterday. But here we are and I'm humbly asking for your feedback! I love to interact with you! Please, write me a comment, so I know whether you liked this one or not. 
> 
> Thank you very much for your great support! You're making my incredibly happy. :)


	7. Stubborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recovery time! And finally some answers I promised.

Tony had a horrible night. 

For few hours after he fell asleep, there was nothing but a sweet oblivion waiting on him behind his closed eyelids. But with time running forward the strange pain, which wasn’t his, but uh, felt so real… returned to his body and made it impossible to sleep anymore. 

He woke up with a shudder and whimper on his tongue. 

Wong was right there, feeding him some more of the herbs he had taken before without even Tony having his eyes properly open. He slowly came back to the reality during the next hour. The first thing he noticed was that the sun was already up. The space around him, which looked so frightening in the night, was now being bathed in the soft sun’s beams. The same beams which lured him completely awake by warming the side of his face. 

The second thing he learnt was that Wong wasn’t there. The room the three of them had occupied for past hours was the only one in the old cabin, just like he had assumed. But from the position he was currently in, it was impossible to look properly around. 

The body next to him didn’t shake anymore. There were no sounds of pain or murmured words in language he didn’t understand. It was completely still and Tony panicked for a moment until he saw that Stephen’s chest was moving.

Up and down.  
Up and down.  
No more suppressed groans or gritted teeth.

He looked peacefully asleep, turned to face Tony, snuggled as close as it was physically possible.

And that was how Tony had woken up. With the demon pressed to him, touching everywhere he could reach. It seemed like it happened without their consent while both of them were deeply asleep. They’d had to pass those few inches keeping them apart, tangle their limbs and share the breathing space.

And Tony… 

… didn’t mind in the slightest.

He remembered how the pain had become more bearable in that position until it had subdued completely with Wong’s help. He’d felt the warmth seeping from the other man’s body and somehow known that it was the fever slowly dying down. He’d felt a relief. 

Even now he breathed out a huff of air feeling like the stone had fallen of his shoulders. Looking straight at Stephen’s face in front of him, he couldn’t help himself, but observe every detail sharing the information about his state. 

He seemed recovered. Mostly. But exhausted. 

The injury on his leg was bandaged so Tony couldn’t see how that one was. However, somehow… he sensed that it was alright, healing. 

His fingers had absentmindedly wandered over the demon’s sharp cheekbones and he fully realized only later what he was really doing, but didn’t have the heart to stop.   
“What am I going to do?” Tony sighed.

The fear and the outright refusal he had felt the previous night were mostly gone, leaving the space for the more reasonable thoughts. He only wished they would have come earlier before the all “run into the forest in the night” idea had crossed his mind.

He had to find out what happened to them first.

What that kiss had done to them. But there was no way around the fact that Tony was the one who’d asked for this, demanded it. Not Stephen. And he’d looked just as shocked as Tony. Thinking it all through now, there was no way that the demon knew what will happen. 

And damn…

Stephen had come for him in the forest. 

He’d fought that beast, got injured because of Tony’s stupid run-away attempt. Tony wanted to badly remember how that creature looked like, but all he could visualize was a big fury bear-like form, which smelled after the rotten meat and had teeth sharper than anything he had ever seen. The teeth running with poison.

Tony’s gaze refocused on Stephen’s peaceful face, his fingers brushing the jaw then wandering to those nice pointy ears.

That creature from the forest looked nothing like the man before him. But both of them were demons. Tony felt confused. Again. It was almost a constant feeling accompanying him these days. He got lost in his thoughts for a moment realizing only some time later that there was a pair of eyes blinking at him. 

His hand stopped mid-move and then he pulled it abruptly back.

Stephen’s forehead wrinkled in the slow, puzzled reaction. And then he frowned, opening his mouth and frowning some more when for few seconds nothing came out.  
“You’re okay,” Tony tried instead, not moving, not breathing.  
“Wong took care of you.”

Stephen still looked unsatisfied with Tony’s words.  
“Y-you?”  
Tony raised his eyebrow. “Me?”  
He tried again, first closing his eyes for a moment, then gazing back up at Tony with his crazy colored eyes.  
“You… okay?”

Now it was Tony’s turn to stay struck by the question and unable to answer right away.  
“Yes… I… Yes.” It wasn’t perhaps the best idea to mention their “connection” now and how that didn’t make him feel okay. There will be plenty of time later.

They stared at each other in silence until Stephen licked his dry lips and Tony jumped out of their improvised bed immediately reaching for the water and bringing it to the other man’s lips. If it came awkward to him, he said nothing.

“Th-thank you.”  
Damn. Hearing that weak voice tripping over the words Tony felt his stomach clenching. There was an urge deep inside of him, which wanted him to hug the demon and comfort him all the way back to full health. 

Tony knew better than to go with that urge.

“You… You will be alright?”   
Stephen nodded. If Tony hadn’t looked at him so closely, he would probably miss it.  
“Don’… le-leave.”   
“Huh?”  
Before Tony’s stupidness could force the man to strain himself more and repeat what he had said, Tony blurted out “yes, sure, of course”.

He still seemed puzzled about Tony’s sincerity though.  
“It’s not like I will ignore your warnings again and go for the walk into that nice forest of yours. Like ever.”  
Not alone. Not without proper weapons and certainly not in the dark.  
“You can sleep. I will be here.”

Tony guessed that Stephen believed his promise after all, because few minutes later he was out cold and Tony’s hand returned to its previous location over the exposed skin.

Wong quite pointedly cleared his throat when walking into the scene. 

Probably to give Tony some time to stop the intimate gesture if he wanted to, but to what purpose? Wong had seen him cuddle with the demon for hours. It couldn’t get any weirder. 

“You can return to your cave if you want,” Wong offered, “I can stay with him.”  
Tony found himself shaking his head, still gazing into that handsome face.   
“No, I told him I will stay.”

Whether was Wong surprised or not, it was hard to tell, even after Tony made himself properly sit.  
“What happened?” he asked watching Wong walking around the small corner of the room, gathering food for cooking.

The man continued in his task while throwing a look over his shoulder.

“You had a stupid idea. You went with that stupid idea. You got yourself and him hurt. That’s what happened.”

Ouch.  
That was harsh.

“How did you know I went to the forest?”

Tony remembered the birds and was rightfully scared shitless of their next encounter.  
“He knew that something was wrong. He is far more sensitive for your bond than you are. Or at least it was like that at the beginning, when it was being formed,” Wong explained with Tony shocked about his chatty mood.  
“He went to check up on you and you weren’t there. The birds did the rest. He found you in time, thank gods for that.”

Tony swallowed dryly when he remembered the beast in the forest.  
“What was that thing?”  
It turned out that he wasn’t so far from the truth when he’d called it a demon in his head. As Wong patiently explained to the stupid weaponsmith, there were more demons out there and they weren’t all the same.

That made sense.

Tony glanced towards the one demon laying on the cot and his fingers twitched, starving for the touch.

“So that was the reason why I wasn’t supposed to leave?”

Wong stopped what he was doing in regard to scowl at Tony.

“Not the whole reason.”   
Tony expected him to return to his vegetables, but instead he sat down, sighing.  
“Do you know what happened to other brides they sent?”

Tony again shook his head. How could he know? 

“Stephen let them go,” Wong said, pausing long enough to let the words sink in. “He let them go, but not to return in the same village. He led them through the forest and as far away as it was possible.”  
“Why?”   
Tony almost regretted he asked. Wong’s eyes darkened.  
“Because one time he did not, the villagers killed the poor girl fearing that she was either possessed or turned to a demon or she managed to got away and therefore brought the demon’s anger upon them.”

It was crazy.  
And absolutely believable.

Tony knew his own people. They tend to be cruel and act like bastards when scared. Not that it was any excuse to do something so horrible.

“What about me then? Why didn’t you do the same with me?”  
Wong smiled. Shortly and sharp.  
“Would you listen if I said you can go, but never return to your workshop or to your friends? One day of watching you was enough to understand how stubborn you are. I learnt your name and your story. You would go straight there or am I wrong?”

Tony wanted to argue, but…

“Yes, I would,” he admitted, eyeing the floor for a moment. “So the demons in the forest, my stubbornness and… the prophecy?”

He knew Wong won’t tell him anything about the last part in the same moment as he had asked and saw the man glance Stephen’s way.

“You have to give me at least something if you expect me to… cooperate,” Tony finished tentatively, claiming back Wong’s attention fully on himself.

“I know you think that what you are feeling now is not real.”

Uh, okay… maybe not this. Could they not speak about this theme in particular?

“But you are wrong.” Wong looked deadly serious and Tony tried to find a crack in his expression to detect a lie.   
He found none.

“Magic doesn’t work like that. It can’t make you feel things. Prophecies aren’t powerful enough to draw you to someone against your will. Whatever happened between you two, it happened because both of you let it happen and because you were destined to do so. And don’t take me wrong here. Destiny has nothing to do with magic. The universe has the power over us all. But no magic is holding you here right now. No magic – his or anyone else’s or guilt or whatever you would like to call it - is making you spend hours touching him to relieve his pain.”

Wong looked him straight in the eyes and it felt like someone was cutting into his soul.

“You chose to do it. You are the one who is in control, even when you feel like the opposite. The emotions towards him are so strong because of the prophecy, yes, but they were created without the magic interference. And he…”

Wong’s eyes flickered towards the demon again.  
“He is as much scared as you are. Don’t put the blame on him. If you want to leave him behind and search for your happiness elsewhere, you can. I can lead you out of the forest somewhere safe even now and gods, I will put some spell on you so you wouldn’t be able to return and risk your life. The bond would get weaker over the time and thanks to distance. You just need to say the word.”

Tony sucked in the air, feeling like his lungs might never work properly again.

Did he want that?  
Something in his heart was screaming senseless that no, no way that was what he wanted now.  
And Wong knew that very well if the smile plastered on his lips was any indication.

“So you were in my village. You kept calling me my name and I thought you might be reading my mind or something…”  
Wong laughed.  
So no mind reading. That was… good to know.

Tony stayed silent for a moment, thinking about everything what Wong had said. 

He had no attachments to his village beside his workshop and his two friends. He didn’t need to rush away. Maybe he could wait and… see how the things will evolve for him. For them. Now that he was sure that no one meant him any harm and that there wasn’t any paranormal activity behind his sudden feelings for the demon, he could give this thing a try. 

If Stephen wanted it too.  
To ask him Tony had to wait.  
His head snapped Wong’s way.

“Tell me more.”

“About what?”

“Everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello darlings,
> 
> this chapter I slowed down a bit, hope you liked it. I apologize for how short it is, but a horrible, horrible thing happened to me. I developed an inflammation in my right hand and therefore writing has been an agonizing task for me these past days. Still I managed to put this together at least. :) Some questions finally answered and we will continue with more in the next chapter. 
> 
> And I promise Stephen will be awake for the most of it. XD
> 
> Thank you very much for reading. Please, leave me a comment of how you felt about this one. Love. :*


	8. Your hands and my heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's all about the pain. Pain, which connects us.

“What else do you want to know?”

Tony’s eyes were fixed on the man sitting before him, the forgotten bowl with soup in both their laps getting cold. Or maybe it was already cold. They’d been speaking for quite some time.

“I… I need to process first,” Tony said after all, recalling all of his previous questions. Could it be true that he and the people in the village were indeed so blind and stupid? Pulling charges without any proper investigations?

“So you are telling me that he is not responsible for the things people say he did.”  
Wong slowly nodded.  
“No, he is the protector of the forest. He doesn’t kill if he isn’t provoked or threatened.” He’s said that few times already. Tony found himself believing it.

“Other… demons,” Tony spat the word, “there are other demons and he… fights them? To protect us?”

The story Wong had told him would sound crazy to him few weeks ago, but not now.

_“People think that he is the cause of every misfortune happening to them. They call him different names because they believe he takes a different forms and shapes upon himself when hunting on his preys.”_

_Wong laughed bitterly._

_“There are magical barriers at the borders of the forest. His presence, his magic and what he does, he willingly draws those demons to him so they wouldn’t cause the harm elsewhere. That’s why they occupy only this forest. That’s why people in the village think it’s him who attacks them when they enter the forest or when the magical shields weaken.”_

Tony had asked back then why did he keep doing that? Why to keep helping people who wanted to kill him, who were so wrong in their judgement.  
Wong had no idea. Just like Tony.

_“It’s in his nature. What would you do? If someone from the village came to you and asked for help? Would you turn your back at them because of what they did to you?”_

_Tony shook his head, embarrassed by his own weakness. His father had warned him that his soft heart will cause him only troubles._

_“I would help.”_   
_There was a hint of a knowing smile on Wong’s face._   
_“You see? You are not so different from him.”_

Tony sat with his eyes pinned to the floor. He lifted them as another question ran through his mind.

“Where are his people? There has to be more of them, right?”  
One look was enough to tell him that he won’t like the answer.

“There are not a lot of them, but yes, there are more. Some chose to stay silent, live their long lives in peace and not to draw unnecessary attention. Others were consumed by darkness and became the beasts like the one you met in the forest.”

“And he chose to put himself in a mortal danger to help people who are delusional and wants to kill him,” Tony finished, grimacing.  
“Why to send him a bride then?”

Wong glanced at the veil which covered Stephen where he was still sleeping. Tony had placed it there himself to provide an extra warmth.

“If you can’t kill it, you try to bribe it.”  
That made sense.

“Tell me more about his people,” Tony demanded.  
Wong took a deep breath before he started and Tony listened.

He listened about how their kingdom looked like hundreds of years ago. About the demons like Stephen being worshiped as the gods’ messengers – able to see future, heal diseases, protect the nature. They weren’t the outcast they were believed to be today.

Worshiped.

“What happened?”  
Wong sighed.  
“The great wars happened,” he said, “demons were drawing their strength from nature. But with wars the nature, all the beauty they were sworn to protect, was being destroyed. They stood against it, tried to stop it, but people weren’t listening. That way they were slowly depriving them of their strength and magic. Without it demons couldn’t help people in the same ways as before. Their powers suddenly became limited. If they healed, they had to pay attention not to overdo it or they would start to draw from their own life energy. People started to blame them for many things. For their beloved dying, for their fields not providing enough food. Over the years and many, many generations they forgot it was their own fault to start with.”

Tony felt the stink of injustice in his chest.

“So they… they started to hunt them?” There had to be a reason for how little of Stephen’s people were still alive. “How can you even kill a demon?”

Wong’s eyes narrowed at his last question. Tony realized how that had to sound.  
“No, no… I… you don’t need to answer that. I don’t plan to harm him in any way.” That option was kind of unthinkable now.  
“You better not.”

Tony waited until Wong’s expression cleared from the sudden emotional outburst.

“They can be killed. It’s hard, because of their magic. But when that runs out, they are vulnerable. People fought the demons from the fear and a lot of demons fought back merciless. The stories started to form about them being mindless creatures who use the magic to hurt people for no reason at all. The times of the wars between the two kinds are over now. People live in the lies told by their parents and grandparents and so on. They don’t even know why it started at all. The only thing which remained is their fear. And fear can make us see a lot of things, which aren’t real.”

Tony had a lot to think about. He couldn’t quite comprehend how this mess appeared to be. He wasn’t ignorant of the outside world. He too heard about the demons living around the kingdom, but while spending almost his entire life in the capital, he didn’t take those warnings quite seriously. The kingdom itself never waged any war or fight against those creatures in his lifetime and the history was rather strict when mentioning any past encounters.

The king never took the threat seriously, but he also never called the villagers insane. He probably knew that demons were indeed real, but some missing nobodies couldn’t make him admit anything out loud.

And as far as Tony knew he was also strictly refusing the idea that the kingdom’s poor crop had anything to do with supernatural causes. But if people were really being sacrificed in some part of the kingdom and no one ever payed attention to that… Damn, Tony himself hadn’t believed the horror stories about the forest when he first had moved into the village two years ago. At least not until he woke up chained to the stone in that cave.

“He must hate me then,” Tony found himself uttering after a moment. Wong had started to eat, but now the spoon in his hand awkwardly stopped in front of his mouth.

“Why should he?”

Tony looked at him rather pointedly.  
“It seems you know a lot about me. So it’s not any surprise for you to learnt that I am not just a mere blacksmith.”  
“The former royal armorer. One of best that the kingdom ever had,” Wong nodded, admitting that he knew.  
“Yes. I maybe didn’t fight myself, but I fed the army with more and more advanced weapons for years. I was the reason why the wars could continue and were more deadly than before.”

Tony could hear the self-hatred in his own words. It was so big that it was impossible to hide.

“But you are not doing that anymore, are you?”

Tony stayed silent.  
He didn’t, but it hardly helped to clean any of the blood from his hands.

“He doesn’t hate you. He hates the aggression and greed in people, yes and it’s true he stopped to care about others a long time ago.”

But he cares about me… Tony wanted to say, but stopped himself in time. He did, right? But why? How was Tony any different from other people?

Wong started to eat again and Tony slowly lifted his own bowl gazing back at the sleeping figure next to him. The demon was breathtaking even in his sleep and under the fever. Yet, Tony felt like he had no right to touch that beauty.

Why don’t you hate me?

He asked over and over again right until those beautiful eyes opened once more and stared through every wall he ever built, right to his weak, crippled heart.

 

\---

Tony spent the whole day in the Wong’s cabin, but as soon as Stephen started to break from the pain inducted haze to full consciousness, he decided it would be best if he returned to his cave.

“He takes it bad when he’s weak in front of others,” Wong said and Tony could relate. That’s why he said his goodbyes and asked Stephen whether they will meet when he’ll be recovered. He had agreed, asking Tony in return not to go to the forest for any reason.

Tony aware that the only creature able to save him was currently unavailable, he gladly gave his promise.

“Here,” Wong said and offered him a leather bound book looking both too old and too treasured to have any sings of an uncareful use.  
“It’s my mother’s diary,” Wong continued, for a moment appearing like he couldn’t quite part with it despite that his hand was outstretched and giving.  
“Read it, you will learn many things from it.”

Tony took the diary in his hands brushing his fingers over the cover.  
“Thank you.”  
Wong didn’t need to say anything for Tony to know that it was a very valued item.  
“I will keep it safe.”

He started to read right that same evening. Well, after he’d made a bright new tree homes for the pissed of birds. When he was done with the work, he opened the book at the shore of the lake reading until it was too late and too dark for him to continue. The same thing repeated the next day and the day after that.

On the fourth day Wong came and made a proposition in Stephen’s place. The demon was well and kicking and that information made Tony smile despite Wong’s very obvious amusement.

“He asks whether he can come and if so, then when?”  
Tony shrugged.  
“Today? Afternoon?”

So today it was.

For whatever reason Tony decided to spend the entire morning trying to recall at least some of the recipes he barely remembered from his childhood. He could swear if it wasn’t for Pepper he would die of hunger for sure. And now he attempted to cook.

Wong had brought enough to make a warm meal once a day, only if Tony knew how. Until now he’s eaten mostly raw food, fruit and vegetable or meat prepared on fire. Today he challenged himself with a soup. For lack of better idea he tried to imitate what he had eaten that day in Wong’s cabin.

So when Stephen finally decided to appear silent like a mouse again, he caught the man pouring the dangerously looking warm liquid into the bowls with as much focus and determination as possible.

“It smells nice.”  
Tony almost jumped out of his skin.

He turned, leaving the steaming bowls on the ground in front of him.

When seeing the demon with his usual color and a small non-threating smile, he let out the breath which he wasn’t aware he was holding. Good. He was… good. And as breathtaking as usual.  
“Smell can be deceiving. I’m not sure it’s edible,” he admitted, pursing his lips like a child who were waiting until the grown up realizes it messed up.

For a moment he expected some crazy feelings wrapping him into a ball and throwing him under the demon’s feet, but no… He, however felt warm and “butterfly-are-throwing-a-party-in-my-stomach like each time his gaze slid onto that lean figure bending to take the bowl into his hands.

Hands?  
Not claws?

Tony took in the scars which covered those beautiful long fingers and before Stephen could notice, he quickly looked away feeling like he wanted nothing more than to take him in his arms and kiss those scars for eternity.

Oh fuck. Hello crazy feelings.

And it wasn’t only those hands which confused Tony. There was also his old friend attached to Stephen’s shoulders waving at him as the demon sat down.

“What the…” he didn’t have the chance to finish, when the cloak left its master and stood up on his own, two of its corners bent like he was preparing for an intimidating posture.

“Okay, maybe I’m just going crazy here, but is this a sentient cape who likes to play on wings in its free time?”  
Tony almost missed Stephen chuckle, slowly shaking his head.  
“No, you are completely sane. But I would advise to address my companion as a cloak. Not a cape.”

Tony made a mental note.  
“And what is it about the wings-thing?”  
Stephen looked at him somehow fondly like he actually enjoyed that someone was asking about this.

“The cloak of levitation can take many forms. The wings are one of them. This particular shape has many benefits.”  
“Like keeping your ass warm and cozy?”

Tony’s tongue was faster than was healthy and he bit it down rather aggressively to prevent any more slips. But Stephen looked amused by the question, even though surprised.

“Yes, that too.”

Tony nodded appreciating that he was getting his answers for once and for a moment neither of them spoke. Tony watched Stephen eat the soup. However stupid that sound, it was thrilling. At least until he put a spoon of it inside his own mouth and immediately grimaced.

“Uh, it’s awful,” Tony stated disappointingly, trying to find a single reason why was Stephen still eating.  
“Don’t need to be polite, just spit it out and I will get rid of it,” he offered the solution and met the demon’s confused eyes.  
“What? I… No. It’s good,” he said. “Far better than what I can do.”

For few seconds Tony was completely frozen.  
“You cook?” He mentally sighed over his own stupidness. “I mean… you obviously eat… but… I just can’t picture you cutting the vegetable. People’s heads off? Yes. But vegetable? Nope.”

Stephen took no offense it that. Quite the opposite. He laughed shortly, making Tony feel like he needed to say more to make that happen again.

“I don’t cook much. Wong does though. Sometimes we eat together,” he cleared the matter for Tony, who put his bowl on the ground decided not to touch it anymore.

“We talked… with Wong,” Tony declared after a longer moment, not sure if he did a good thing.  
“Yes, I know,” Stephen admitted, finishing the soup and placing the empty bowl next to Tony’s. Suddenly there was much more tension in the air and both of them were highly aware of the reason.

“He offered you a way out. You already know why you are kept here.”

It was hard to read Stephen’s expression at the moment.

“I promised I would stay.”  
“Until I get better.”  
“It was my fault,” Tony blurted out without thinking. Stephen kept gazing into his eyes like he was searching for something. Anything.

“I’m so sorry.” Tony tried to touch his hand, just a friendly gesture, but the demon flinched back, immediately regaining the control after he had lost it. However, the damage was done. Tony pulled his fingers away trying not to give in to the horrible feelings of rejection springing into his chest.

“I… I apologize for that,” Stephen said after a pause, clearly upset with himself and his reaction.  
“What is wrong with your hands? Do they… hurt?” Tony asked only to again regret it a second later. And he used to call himself a genius.

Stephen looked taken aback by the question and for the first time since he arrived Tony feared that he might not answer. He was wrong.

“Answer for answer?” he asked instead and pointed at Tony’s chest and the light hidden beneath the shirt’s thick material.  
“What is that thing? I’ve caught a glimpse the second time me and Wong treated your wounds.”

It was a natural reaction for Tony to shield his reactor if someone mentioned it. The gesture was written in his DNA by now. Yet he didn’t worry enough to refuse the deal proposed to him.

“It’s the device I made. I was injured with my own weapon. That thing keeps my heart beating.” He was honest, because he didn’t think that Stephen would use that information against him. He had plenty of chances to hurt him or worse and he did nothing of that sort. Tony doubted he even could, if he felt any near to Tony’s own inner state.  
“Your turn.”

“I was injured,” Stephen started with the same words as Tony looking at his hands a bit nostalgically after he had pierced a hole into Tony’s chest with his remorseful eyes.  
“Your people did it.”  
However, that didn’t sound like he was accusing Tony of anything.  
“If you want to cripple a demon, you go after his hands. For demons who don’t have their bonds it’s hard to channel their energy without using their hands properly.”

Tony felt sick from what those words implied.

Someone had hurt him. Went after him and injured his hands to the point they left those scars and trembles.

“Wong gave you the diary, right?”

Tony snapped out of his thoughts, nodding.

“So you probably read about how the bonds used to work like? Why they were made in the first place?”  
“No,” Tony was a bit confused, “I haven’t got to that part yet.”  
“Oh, you will.” Stephen looked away, gazing at the peaceful surface of the water. He looked like he remembered something, so Tony let him think in silence for a while.

“You didn’t answer the second part. Do they hurt?” Tony refused to give up after all.

It would explain why he was so careful about them. Tony had to swallow down the nausea when he remembered how those hands had grabbed him when he’d tried to escape after that first kiss. If they were really that sensitive, it had to be extremely painful.

Stephen looked back at his fingers, stretching them out carefully.

“Yes, they do hurt. Your heart?”  
“Yes,” Tony breathed out easily, too easily. “Yes, it hurts.”

A small smile appeared on the demon’s lips. It carried a deep compassion.  
“What a great pair we are.”

Tony smiled as well. He could picture them sitting here like that tomorrow and the day after that. With a bowl of a bad soup. With the sun slowly setting behind the horizon. He was torn between wanting to return to his forge and friends and listening to this demon talking. His voice carrying to his ears like the most beautiful music he’s ever heard.

“Are you in hurry?” Tony asked, pulling out the diary from the bag next to him. “Maybe we can read it together. I could understand better if you would explain alongside with it.”

Tony wasn’t sure if it was only his eyes playing tricks on him, but the demon suddenly looked happy that he had a valid reason to stay a bit longer.

“No… I’m not in a hurry. You can read aloud.”

Tony, poor thing, didn’t even know that this certain demon loved his voice as much as Tony loved Stephen’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello, dear readers!
> 
> I must say that you completely blew my mind with your amazing and lovely comments! It means such a big deal to me, even more now, when I still fight with the certain health problems. What is also the reason why I delivered this chapter a bit later than usual. Thank you very much for still being here and reading. :) Love.
> 
> Btw. I started to make an ironstrange edit comic. The first part is already on my tumblr. Click [here](https://ironstrangerule.tumblr.com/post/186711403392/ironstrange-comic-part-1-i-made-this-last-night), if you want to read. I might post it also later here on AO3.


	9. Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry!

I am so deeply sorry!

I swore to myself to never do this "note thing" as it's a horrible way how to learn there will be no new chapter right away. Don't worry, I'm not leaving this fic. I just took some time off for myself to get better and somehow it just stretches. This Tuesday I'm going abroad for a holiday until the 7th of September. You can await the new chapter during that time or soon after. Once again, I apologize, for such a delay and this whole note chapter. I will make sure to make it up to you. :) 

Thank you very much for understanding. Have a lovely week, stay tuned and we will see each other very soon. :*


	10. Spare hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Stephen reads the diary and have a small adventure. How else this could have ended than in a complete disaster? :)

The days passed with the demon frequently returning back to the lake and to this mortal who awaited him every afternoon. They would sit together and eat, talk about small things, wisely avoiding the more dangerous topics. Then they would open the old diary. The mortal would lay down on his belly and kick his feet up to the air. He wouldn’t know that the pair of shining eyes are watching his every move while he is busy opening the book on the marked page.

Tony liked their reading sessions. A lot.

It was the thing he was looking forward since he opened his eyes in the morning. Not even Wong’s earlier visits could compare to the thrill the demon has been giving him these days.

Another week has passed and Tony didn’t mention his old home once. At least not the wish to return there. And gods could strike him on the place, but he didn’t know why… Why he just couldn’t. More so in front of the demon. Instead he mentioned a lot of different things which were connected with the place. Like Pepper and Rhodey.

He was really missing them.

_“From what you read, Wong’s mother looked very much like your friend. Virginia, is that right?”_

_Tony had given him the full name and now he was regretting it. It just sounded strange to his own ears._   
_“Yes, Pepper.”_   
_He gazed over the words he had just read out loud._

_Shaile, Wong’s mother hadn’t mentioned her appearance often, so it was rare to stumble upon the description so precise as was this one._

Stephen had laughed when Tony had decided to start reading from the part when Wong was born. Only because he’d really wanted to learn some embarrassing stories on the man to tease him with. He’d succeeded - searched and found and teased and now when he was finally satisfied with the mortified half-demon hiding in the woods, they could move on. That meant that actually they had to move to the beginning of the diary and properly start it.

Tony skipped few starting pages, which were really just nothing saying. But then his eyes narrowed and he pointed with his finger to the sentence which caught his eyes.

“He came to our village today,” Tony started with even voice, “everyone already knows that he chose me. Oh, gods, he is so beautiful!”  
Tony chuckled inwardly, because that sounded familiar.  
“He brought me flowers. He’d heard from someone that it was a nice thing to do between the people. I put some between the next pages to remember this moment forever.”

It was hard to resist reaching between the mentioned pages. They were indeed there, but for love of gods Tony couldn’t name them.  
“What are those?” he picked them up to Stephen for a closer inspection. He didn’t need to be very careful. The flowers looked like they were put there yesterday.

“Those aren’t real flowers,” the demon explained, returning them to Tony’s hand after a short inspection. “They were created by magic. They won’t ever wither.”  
Tony kept gazing at them for some time until returning them to their original place, avoiding to foolishly daydream about the two folks touching those very petals.

He returned back to the text.  
“My parents want me away as soon as possible. People in the village look at me… well… not good. I don’t want to cause any more troubles to anyone and I still live more in the forest than at my father’s house anyway.” Tony kept frowning more and more with each new sentence. He didn’t like where this was going.  
“I saw my dress. All white and shiny! The veil is also beautiful. My mother had prepared it for months now. The ceremony will be held in the cave as usual, but only for the closest family and friends. I… I don’t feel very good around other people these days. I think it’s for the best. Mother wants us not to come back once I leave. But how could we? It’s his duty to help people and I need to aid him with this task.”

Tony could feel the tension and fear from those words. He immediately pictured this brave woman and everything she had to withstand to be with someone she obviously loved. But how they could come from that description of ignorant, fear-filled people to ones who first hunted onto their protectors and then sacrificed another people to them to ease their anger?

Tony stopped the reading as this was the last sentence of that day. It was nearly dark. The sun was setting down behind his back and that was a clear sign for the end.

Today they’d spent a lot of time just talking and Stephen had finally showed him some safe parts of the forest. It was a good day.

“Can you show me some magic?”  
“Huh?”

Tony gazed up and smiled softly.  
“According to the diary, you should be able to do many things. Healing, protecting, making things grow… I bet there is more.”  
For a second a deep regret flashed through Stephen’s face and he diverted his eyes.  
“I’m sorry,” Tony apologized immediately, not even knowing what for, but he was aware it was somehow important. “I shouldn’t have asked that.”

“No.” The demon shook his head. “It’s fine. I would like to show you, but… I can’t.” He looked at his trembling hands and pulled them closer to his chest.  
“I can’t use the magic properly since the injury. I have the power, but I lack the means how to access it. I can only do one thing at the time. If I fight with demons in the forest, I can’t make anything grow or heal or anything else.”

Tony wished that wasn’t the reason.

“You are doing it even now?” he asked, “using magic?”  
Stephen looked like he understood straight away.  
“No. I mean, it takes some focus to have this shape. But it’s not so draining. Demons have lived so long among people that both shapes are natural to us.”

Hands or claws. Wings or cloak.

“But isn’t it more painful when you have them as actual hands?” Tony realized some time ago that Stephen always approached him with the form which resembled a human, but that wasn’t perhaps the best choice for him too.  
“You can wear the claws, I don’t mind,” he tried to reason with him, when Tony saw the answer written clear in his expression.

There was a minute of silence stretching towards more when Stephen interjected it.

“That way I wouldn’t be able to touch you.”

The time stopped.

Tony took a slow breath in and out, holding the gaze which was like a flame burning through his soul.

Yes, they’d touched. Many times. It was always just a brush of the fingers when being handed something. Shoulders pressed together when walking close and avoiding an obstacle. And both of them clearly wanted more. Both of them touch-starved and longing and yet…

Tony reached for Stephen’s hand in his lap, gently stroking the scarred skin and ignoring how the demon tensed and then relaxed in only few seconds time. It was the first touch since that night which was intentional and with a purpose.

“Is it worth it?” Tony whispered still stroking.  
Confused eyes blinked at him and then they became somehow confident.

“Always.”

\---

“So again. What the two of you want to do exactly?”  
Wong was frowning. Like never before. But this time it was kind of expected.

Tony put both of his hands up and in front of him to calm the man.  
“I want to return. Just for some stuff from my workshop,” Tony said patiently, although Wong still didn’t look pleased. He turned to Stephen who was standing next to Tony silently.  
“And you are going to accompany him? So close to the village?” A disapproval evident in his voice.

Stephen didn’t look taken aback by that.  
“Yes.”

Tony expected more, but when he saw that the neither of the men were about to break the silence, he did it himself.

“We talked, Wong.”  
“About?”

Tony briefly looked at Stephen and then back to his loyal friend.  
“About me,” Tony tried to explain, “about the village and… me… yes, mostly about me…” Ha caught Stephen’s eyes again. “Us. About us.”  
Wong gave him a steady, serious look.  
“Before you start lecturing, just hear me out.” When Wong relucantly nodded, Tony continued. “I can’t stay here. Not like this. If it should be real, I have to have my own space.”

Tony shortly recalled how he’d said the exactly same words to Stephen and how it’d sounded like nothing he’d planned.  
“I mean… I get it that I can’t return to my village now. But there are many more on the other side of the forest. We can pick something close. I can have my shop there and you two can visit… or I will visit. It doesn’t matter. We can see how it will go from there…”

Of course he meant this strange relationship he had built with the demon.

“It’s like with your mother, Wong. She didn’t live in the forest from the beginning, right? She kept returning. That is what I need too. I need to be set free and have a choice to return.”

Wong’s eyes narrowed.  
“And will you? Will you return?”

Not only tonight.  
But in the future.

Was this a trap? A way how to get rid of them and run away? Hide for good?  
That was what he was really asking and Tony felt like he might laugh.

He could hardly run away with those bright eyes imprinted in his mind. Now Stephen was looking at him with those same eyes allowing him to see the emotional turmoil behind them. He was scared. It showed.

“I will return. I just need my spare reactors, Wong. That’s what it is all about tonight.”  
Tony touched his chest and saw how Wong and Stephen followed the movement.  
“I will have to replace the one I have now very soon. We must do the trip. If it goes out anytime soon, I will die without a new one.”

They weren’t going to risk anything like that happening to him. He could see that on both of their faces. Was he the man from the past, Tony would use this sentiment, their care in his advantage. But not now. He could hardly think in that way anymore. He wasn’t like that. And he… cared back about them too.

“Very well,” Wong gave them both a serious look, bringing his hands behind his back in a familiar pose, “but be careful. I don’t fancy to patch up any of you.”

Tony smiled, pleased.

This was weird. Like asking for mother’s permission, but with Wong it was still better to ask first than let him find out and being silent treated for days.

“Sure, mom,” Tony didn’t help himself, but grinned. And when he turned back to glance at Stephen, his demon hardly hided his own chuckle.

They spent another hour planning this thing out. Neither of them wanted to rush blindly in. Still, when they finally reached the border of the forest, Tony felt his stomach turn around. There was some strange feeling lurking in his head, which almost made him step back, but for the sake of the worried demon at his side, he didn’t.

Now, when Stephen knew how easily his heart could just give up on him, he would hardly rest until Tony would have his reactors close and ready.  
“Are you okay?” he asked when Tony didn’t move for some time, only gazing at his house and the forge in the distance.  
“Fine,” he answered after a moment, rubbing his hands together, “I’m just nervous.”

Stephen frowned.  
Tony knew how much the demon didn’t want to let him do this alone. But it was the best option. He could always interfere if someone would show up and threaten Tony. Alone, Tony had the biggest chance to come around without anyone noticing.

“Be careful.”  
Stephen returned a small smile, hardened with a concern.  
“I will.” Tony turned to the opening of the hill and the valley before him. “Light me up,” Tony offered his hand and in a second a small ball of pure energy with a flame inside was handed to him. Enough to lit the path, but not to draw unnecessary attention.

The ball felt warm and comforting in his hand while he was descending the hill.

It wasn’t something meant to harm him, but the energy could be dangerous, if Tony decided to throw it at someone. From what he understood, Stephen was quite good in defensive and attacking spells, but that was it. Anything which required more of building something instead of destroying was a challenge to him.

If the option of Tony helping him channel his energy was a real thing, it didn’t have to stay like that forever. And Tony was already looking forward to exploring this option.

But now he had a goal.  
Reactors.  
Maybe some personal stuff.  
He needed to be fast.

As he entered his old home, however, he stopped dead in the tracks, looking around on the mess which was once his forge. For a moment he wasn’t able to do anything else. The furniture was destroyed, paper scattered around the floor along his tools. Broken glass crackling under his boots.

Tony was aware that the only thing preventing people from stealing from him was that they actually feared what traps he set around. And he did set the traps. He wasn’t stupid. Some of them had to be in a pretty bad shape after their theft. Tony didn’t feel any worse for that. At least they were idiots. Gold or silver he possessed were hardly the most valuable materials here.

Tony suddenly found himself unable to decide what he wanted to take with him. Of course, the spare hearts were his first choice. Those were hidden and still there. Only when he had them secured in his bag, he started to look for other things too. A book he received from Pepper for his birthday, a child portrait of him and Rhodey scrawled on a piece of paper.

That was what he went for right after, but the truth was the forge was filled with treasure. Even after the obvious theft. Valuable materials – some very hard to find, some impossible to get anymore, left by the stupid thieves. His schematics, on which he worked often for several years. Weapons – already crafted or in a various stages of completion. Some of them were missing, but a lot of remained.

Damn. And there was also his house, every room filled with countless books. Stephen also liked reading. Tony smiled when he remembered and imagined how he would show him his own collection over a glass of wine. They would sit down and talk about what they’ve read and he would listen for opinions of the bright mind matching his own.

No. He needed to focus. Be quick. He had no time for making up these fantasies.

Tony just thought about collecting some of his recent schematics from the floor, crouching down, when a flicker of light behind the windows made his eyes snap to the spot.

He froze. Fighting away both the panic and disbelief.  
Only Tony Stark could be so lucky and be around when the thieves come steal from him the second time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, darlings! 
> 
> I'm back. Perfectly rested, healthy and ready to jump back into writing mode. :)
> 
> 1\. Firstly, thank you very much for all of your heart-warming comments these past two weeks. Although I haven't replied to all of them (I tried to stay out of internet as much as possible), I've read them all and felt very loved. So THANK YOU. You are the best readers I could wish for and I will never stop appreciating this fact. :)
> 
> 2\. Second, did you take a look on the numbers of the chapters? Yeeeah, more again! Because I love you so much!
> 
> 3\. I also want to thank Athenasbubo and Iithril for the amazing shock they caused me by writing their comments on almost every chapter of this story. My lips still quite hurt from the insane grinning those comments (and all others) caused me. Thank you!
> 
> 4\. This might be a little spoiler for the next chapters, but RangerHorseTug very nicely asked me if it was possible to include the bots in this story and now wait for it... as kittens! The cuteness of this idea almost killed me, so I had no choice, but to agree. :) Who else looks forward onto small kittens entering Tony's, Stephen's and Wong's life? 
> 
> At last, thank you very much for still waiting for me. It means a lot. I hope you like where this story is heading so far. Bye till the next time, friends!


	11. Evil kittens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we are. Kittens. Because I uncondicionally love you, dear reader. :)

Tony hid the light in his palm and crunched to the ground, trying hard to calm his racing heart.

“I saw the light. Someone is there. I told you there is more of the stuff in the house, you idiot.”  
“Don’t call me that. I’ve never seen half of the things he has there. How should I know?”

The voices carried through the darkness as their sources were slowly approaching from the back of the house. Tony could make up at least four of them. Four is more than he could take if he didn’t want to kill. And that… No, he didn’t want to do that anymore.

Quietly as a mouse he aimed for the window in the bedroom, it was low enough for a safe jump and after Tony did just that, he landed in the grass, for a moment disoriented from the sudden light appearing in front of his face. He squeezed his own magic ball in his hand realizing too late that the light didn’t come from there. Well, fuck.

“Hey, hey! I got him!” Tony couldn’t recognize the face, but he was sure he has seen the man at least once in the village. “We’ve been here first, mate.” The man wavered the torch in front of his face. Must have recognized Tony after that, because suddenly he paled and opened his mouth in a shock. Tony welcomed the distraction, thinking quickly about his odds. Should he run? Should he call out for help? Should he try and fight?

Gods, he wished he had let Stephen go with him.

“You are Anthony Stark, aren’t you? Oh, gods save us! That beast took you. How is that you’re here? Are you… are you a demon too?”

Tony would have laughed if he wasn’t in so much trouble.  
“The better question is why are you in my house,” Tony growled, but at the same time he was already side-stepping around the thief. Maybe with a bit of luck he could avoid the confrontation at all.

“What is it, Hunter?” Another voice joined the party and Tony cursed, stopping in the track as another sets of steps came rushing to his ears from the side.

Well, that much for avoiding confrontations. Think, Tony.

The bad news were that other three men didn’t recognize him the same as their companion and that quickly resulted into one of them grabbing onto Tony’s bag and pulling out a knife, on which Tony reacted by kicking the man in the balls and punching the second one in the nose before he could launch at him. 

Still, with so much distraction, the third scum had enough of the time to push Tony into a wall and put his hands on his throat, squeezing with a cry of rage. Tony let the bag go, his fingers frantically trying to loosen the man’s grip on his neck for several seconds until his vision started to blacken. 

And then, in a next moment there was no pressure at all. He was free.

Tony draw in a painful breath, and then another, falling to his knees. The men kept shouting through each other, still fighting, but the shouts quickly changed into cries of utter terror, when Tony heard a rustling of the enormous wings somewhere at his side.

He kept blinking the tears collected in his eyes away to see, to help. But he was pretty much useless at the moment. His chest heaving with hard shuddering half-intakes and nothing else.

“Stephen,” he whispered, not loud enough. 

Tony saw the dark, enormous and frightening figure pushing the men to the ground, one after another both with magic and red stained claws and surprisingly he didn’t feel any fear at the sight. At least not until his eyes focused on the last person standing and the familiar features and voice connected the dots in his head.

“Wait!”  
He saw Stephen’s outstretched wing stop in the mid-move and Tony thanked all the gods in a single prayer. He couldn’t comprehend for a moment that the demon really listened, but here they were. Stephen in front of Tony’s best friend, ready to strike, but doing nothing, waiting.

And Rhodey, god… it was Rhodey!

“James,” Tony called out, his voice still raspy, but audible. It was him, the one, who tore that thief away from Tony’s throat. Tony felt like the emotions might choke him instead.  
“Tony?” 

Disbelief. Shock. Fear.  
Tony could understand all of those, but to hear it coming from his best friend, it made him bite his lip.  
“Please, Stephen,” he addressed the demon instead, turning away from Rhodey’s worried eyes for a moment, “let him go. He was trying to help. He’s my…” Tony wavered. “… friend.” Was he still?

The demon seemed unsure, but after another reassurance, he let Rhodey go, stepping away and taking Tony’s side. Rhodey’s eyes jumped between the two of them and when Tony expected him to finally start to run for his life, he launched himself at Tony, drawing him in a bone-crushing hug.

“Gods, Tony! Oh, my man! You’re alive!”  
It took him only two seconds to reciprocate the embrace and bury his face into Rhodey’s shoulder. A small smile plastering on his lips. A relief running through his body in waves.  
“Yes, Rhodey. I’m fine.” Uh, unless I’m surprising the thieves in my own house. 

Rhodey withdrew, a bit reluctant to let Tony go completely, but at the end he made a small step back, his eyes never leaving Tony’s.  
“I’m so sorry, Tony,” he whispered brokenly, “I should have been here. I should have stopped them. I won’t ever forgive myself. When I learnt what happened… when Pepper… Oh, gods! Pepper will be so happy!”

Tony had to stop him, otherwise Rhodey might die from the shortage of air.  
“It’s okay, Platypus. I’m really alright. It’s not your fault. It’s okay. Just breathe.”  
He offered his friend a gentle smile and one almost returned back to him, if Rhodey hadn’t chosen that moment to take a look at Stephen again.

The demon has remained silent at Tony’s side so far, but now the blacksmith could see small tremors running through his body. He could see anger and terror in his eyes and when he started to pay attention, he would swear he felt a small tugging at their bond, like Stephen wanted to make sure it was still there, that Tony was okay. Tony perhaps could sense Stephen’s emotions so clear because of those emotions being suddenly so strong, almost overwhelming. He blinked, surprised and in awe when he felt something warm spread in his chest after he touched Stephen’s arm.

Peace and care. So much care. Tony somehow couldn’t put his finger on it. What was this feeling. It almost felt like… 

“Tony.” His attention snapped back to his friend, looking worried and – gods, help him – ready to take Tony under his arm and run at the end of the world. All Tony had to do was ask. Give a sign. 

No.

“Rhodey, how is Pep?” 

He knew that his old friend understood. There was no danger to run from. There was no place Tony wanted to be right now, but at the demon’s side. And if Rhodey ever felt like he could be mind-controlled or bewitched or anything people in the village believed has happened to him, the thought had to leave him soon enough.

Tony was Tony. He was being himself. Rhodey had to know, he knew him the best.

“Pepper is fine,” he started slowly, still wary of the demon, but his hostility deceased, just a little. “We are fine… We… We are expecting.”

What?!!

Tony watched as a grin spread over Rhodey’s worried features and turned in to a satisfied face of a soon-to-be-father.  
“Yes. We were blessed. I couldn’t believe it… Pepper is so… Oh, Tony, you should see her. It suits her so much. She will be a great mom.”  
Tony stepped closer on the instinct, taking Rhodey in one more bear-hug.

“That’s awesome, Rhodey. I’m so happy for you. You are going to be a great father, I know it.”

When they pulled apart, Rhodey squeezed his hand.  
“You should come and visit.”  
Oh.

Tony looked at Stephen and then back to Rhodey, who seemed to get the problem pretty quickly.  
“Look, Tones,” he shook his head, “I’m not going to pretend I know what is happening to you right now, but I want us to talk. I want you back, buddy. Whatever it takes.” Even when I would welcome a demon we dread so much in our house – stayed unsaid. 

Tony nodded, aware that they shouldn’t stay too long at this place. They caused a havoc. Someone might have heard and will come to check any time.

“Okay. Good. I will… think of something,” Tony offered him a little, but he didn’t want to promise anything he wasn’t sure he will be able to keep.  
“What were you doing here by the way? Stealing from your dead friend too?” Tony chuckled. He knew that Rhodey won’t take an offense. He was familiar with Tony’s antics. 

“Sure. I needed hoe. Searched everywhere. But nah… just swords and daggers worth my whole house… Nothing of interest.”  
Tony’s grin only widened. He missed his friend terribly.  
“No, really… I came to feed your evil kittens. Those beasts just wouldn’t leave the house. I tried to bring them over to my place, but they fled the next morning.”  
Tony blinked few times, not daring to believe… “My…”

He didn’t have a chance to finish when a soft meow echoed through the night and the first ball of fur came tripping over its own legs from behind the corner.  
“Dummy!” Tony couldn’t believe it. That was a dream coming true. First, Rhodey and now…

The black kitten came rushing towards his outstretched hands after he had lowered himself to the ground. And soon the two remaining followed. One whole white and one with brown stripes. Tony felt tears burning in his eyes, when he took them all to his arms and the small creatures climbed all over him, nuzzling their small pink noses into his clothes.

His bond sang from the tender touches of the animals and Tony had to turn his head to see an absolutely fond expression on the demon’s face. Tony’s own feelings mirrored in Stephen and returned stronger to him. It was a never ending circle. 

Tony got used to the fact he could feel strange things coming from their bond, especially these last days. Wong had said that what he felt only as a light brush thanks to the herbs Wong had been feeding to him every day, Stephen was feeling much stronger. Clearly, Wong thought that Tony wasn’t ready to feel all of it considering how bad he took it the last time when Stephen got hurt. But the bond might act out anyway. He’d been warned about it. Now, when he was experiencing it, he was curious how would it feel to have all of it. The full functioning bond. The one Stephen was having right now.

Was he happy as well? Was he feeling a great relief because Tony met with his old friend and his lovely small companions?

“Anthony, we should go,” the demon stopped his thoughts with a tender reminder. “We can return tomorrow night and take more of your things, if you wish.”

Tony let kittens back on the ground and watched how they came rubbing against his legs immediately after that. Yes, of course. He didn’t plan to leave his shit here for more thieves to come. Speaking of…

Tony turned and his eyes fell towards the bodies laying on the ground. Were they… Were they dead?  
“They’re unconscious,” Stephen said like he could read Tony’s thoughts. Maybe they were visible in his face.  
“I’ll take care of them, Tones,” Rhodey stepped into the conversation, still gazing between them with an unsure expression, but he trusted Tony with whatever was going on. He trusted him enough not to ask him everything he wanted to. Instead he just came closer, touching Tony’s shoulder. If Stephen had made a warning sound, all of them pretended not to hear for that moment.

“Tell me the truth. You want to go with him?”  
Tony gazed at his friend with all the love he could find in himself. The man before him looked both scared to death and ready to fight until the last breath if Tony said so. But he’d already made his decision. He’d promised to Wong. 

“I want to go, yes.”  
Rhodey was looking for a lie in that answer, but when he found none, he nodded reluctantly.  
“But you will return. You will come to visit. Me and Pep.”

Tony looked at Stephen with a silent question. After few seconds, the demon’s gaze fixed on Rhodey.  
“He can come if he wants. But it must remain a secret. People can’t know.”  
“Sure,” Rhodey agreed wholeheartedly. “You will be safe in my house, Tony, I swear.”

Tony knew that. There was no reason to swear it. He squeezed Rhodey’s hand and forced himself to step back and collect his things from the ground. 

“Thank you, Platypus. We will see each other soon.”  
“Here you are.” Rhodey went and brought a basket from his cart for Tony to collect his kittens, which followed him every step he took. “They would try to go with you anyway.”

Tony smiled, when Dummy, U and Butterfingers jumped into the basked on their own accord, all three of them raising their small cute heads at him ready and waiting. Tony laughed. What a strange creatures.

“Take care, Rhodey and say hi from me to Pepper.”  
“She won’t believe me,” his friend smiled, before waving him off and reminding Tony to hurry.

The way back to forest’s border was hard for Tony. He felt upset to leave his friend behind without the possibility to really talk, but at the same time he knew, there was no other choice. They will see each other again. He was sure of that.

\---

“So, let me repeat this,” Wong sight deeply. “Thieves. Then your best friend finding out you’re alive and you still think it’s a good idea to return there tonight.”

Tony nodded eagerly, while Wong kept looking at him like he just hurt his head really badly. 

“And from all of the precious things in your house you returned with three evil cats.”  
“Kittens,” Tony corrected him with a big smile, “yes.”  
Wong looked devasted. He turned his attention towards Stephen sitting near the fire where lunch was being cooked.  
“You bonded an idiot.”  
A fond smile returned to him and Tony felt immediately warm like a fever has just broken inside of his heart.  
“I wouldn’t say,” Stephen at least tried to stand by Tony’s doubtful intelligence while Wong displayed no faith at all for the rest of their lunch.

Yes, they needed to return. Tony had already taken the most important things, but there was much more he wished to move. As the evening approached, he indulged himself in many phantasies of his new workshop, of his future daily visits to the forest. He was excited. That was such a different emotion from what he’d expected to feel when he was chained to the stone in that cave. It felt like all of that happened years ago.

“Ready?” Stephen asked before they could enter the forest again.  
“How do you know when to enter and when not?” Tony asked when he thought about all the possible monsters hiding between the trees.  
Stephen patiently explained that he could feel the negative energy from the demons who meant harm and if needed he could avoid them completely. It didn’t need to be said that he wanted to avoid rather than encounter when he was with Tony.  
The kittens walked them to the first border together with Stephen’s birds. It was a funny sight, when natural biology within those creatures didn’t work at all resulting in them becoming friends rather than food. In many means it was just what happened to him and Stephen.

Tony crunched to the ground, patting each and every kitten over their small heads.  
“You stop here. We will come back,” he warned them with a fond smile. Just as he petted the last kitten, a bird of Stephen’s took a place at Dummy’s side, waiting innocently for the same treatment while peeping excitedly. And as Tony gave it with a storm of laughter, another bird hopped next to the first and then all of them queued for Tony’s hand to pet them affectionally.

After Tony was done and laughed his ass off, he turned back to Stephen only to find out Cloakie – yes he had given the cloak a name – stood detached at Stephen’s side waving his corners towards him.  
“Oh, you big softie! You want a hug? But you are coming with us.”  
Guess, it didn’t matter to the cloak.

Tony embraced the fabric, petting it the same as he’d done with the kittens and birds, eyeing Stephen’s warm and amused expression from the side.

“How is it that everything in this forest is falling in love with you?” Stephen whispered with a sigh and Tony tensed, butterflies running wild in his stomach. He wasn’t sure if Stephen was aware how that statement sounded, but he wasn’t about to pry in and make him uncomfortable about it in the case it was a misunderstanding. Or in the other case too.

“I’m very charming,” Tony played it cool at the end with a cocky sneer. At least he was good at that. Stephen kept starring in his eyes for a moment, making Tony feel like he might drown in them, when something in the nearby trees cracked loudly and both of their heads snapped to that place. A second later a hard-breathing Wong ran out of there and stopped in front of them, leaning to his knees for a support. 

That was unusual. Wong was always very quiet, a sneaking in kind of guy and Tony couldn’t remember a single time when he saw him running. Stephen probably thought the same, because he approached his friend immediately, holding him up by both shoulders.

“What is it, Wong?”  
Wong took one more ragged breath before his face twisted and he looked at Tony remorsefully.  
“I’m sorry, Anthony.”  
Tony opened his mouth to ask.  
“Your house.”  
What?  
“They burnt down your house.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should perhaps delete that statement about regular updates. I'm a horrible, horrible person. XD
> 
> But hey, here we have a new chap. Hope, you like it. I took my non-existing time and put it into a good use. I need to say that I'm very in love with this story and your comments and encouragement just bring me back to it each and every time. THANK YOU.
> 
> Don't forget to send me some love, I deserve it. I gave you super cute kittens. XD


	12. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Home. Where is it? Everyone seems to have a slightly different opinion.

Tony was standing at the edge of the forest, the same place from where he’d descended the hill just a day ago. His eyes became strangely wet and his chest heavy with shallow breaths while he was watching the flames eating up on the house he’d built with his own hands. His life-time work, all of his possession being turned to dust right in front of his eyes.

He was shaking. Badly.  
And then suddenly without any thinking he made a step forward. 

A pair of strong hands came circling around his torso, drawing him back as he launched in the way of his burning house with all of his strength. He might have cried out in rage and in blinding tears. He felt a hollow painful feeling inside his chest grow and he knew that only a part of it was his own misery. 

Tony fell to his knees when his legs stopped supporting him, but the fall was soft and guided by the same strong hands still holding onto him. Now they moved in his hair and over his jaw and around his shoulders. In one moment he was watching the flames and in the other his whole world was filled with a face he knew and grew to be fond of. That face was twisted in a whole different kind of pain. 

Tony realized with a horror that he was squeezing Stephen’s hands. Strong and unmerciful and he let go immediately only to be wrapped in them a second later as his whole form shook with suppressed sobs. 

“I… I-I’m so-sorry. Sorry. Steph…”  
A warm and steady voice interrupted him: “No, Anthony. It’s alright. Please. Please, stop crying. I can’t bear to see you crying.”

Tony had no idea those ungrateful tears were still sliding down his cheeks until Stephen had tried to wipe them away with his thumb. He hid inside his arms for what felt like forever. He had no memory of returning back to the Wong’s small cabin, but he did remember Wong’s eyes full of sympathy and his argument with Stephen about both of them taking the herbs to numb their bond. It was perhaps needed when Tony felt like a wreck and didn’t see this changing any time soon. 

He fell into bed Wong had prepared for him and he didn’t move for many, many hours. He only slept and then someone usually forced some food inside him, but he had no appetite. On the second day his kittens appeared next to his head, licking his cheek and a ghost of smile formed on his lips for the first time since the fire. Wong dragged him out for a while. And the sun and fresh air did some good to his mood, but otherwise he still felt like he had no home anymore and the feeling was devastating. 

Tony asked several times about Stephen. He’d registered the demon being near the first night, calming Tony down each time the sorrow caught up on him, but then for a whole week he hadn’t showed up and Tony became worried.

“He’s taking care of some things. He will seek you out immediately after he’s done,” Wong explained patiently. These last days he was very careful about approaching Tony. Like he might have feared the blacksmith would break if he used a wrong tone. It was probably the truth.

On the day ten Tony was finally feeling like he could face the world again. He spent whole day on the sun and then helping Wong with some work around the cabin and then playing with kittens and Stephen’s birds.

He was missing the demon. He wanted him back. And he could not draw out anything more from Wong about his whereabouts. 

So when Stephen did return on the next day, the first thing Tony did was to avoid strangling him while giving the demon a vary nasty look.

“Where have you been?” he asked, a tone a bit raw and accusing. Wong only smiled behind Stephen’s back like he expected this reaction altogether.  
“I can’t tell,” Stephen started, but corrected himself when he saw Tony frowning, “you need to see.”  
“What?”

Tony was led by his hand towards the lake and the cave. He knew that much. But when he saw the place as they left the forest behind their backs, he stopped abruptly in his tracks almost not recognizing the spot. 

Now next to the lake stood a wooden cabin much more like Wong’s but larger. It was hard to say where wooden walls were ending and where real breathing trees and plants started. All blooming to the beautiful colors of a rainbow. The front porch reached the water in the way one could jump straight from there and dive in. And it all felt so in peace with the nature around, like it always belonged there in the first place. 

Tony didn’t know what to say. He stupidly blinked several times at the beauty in front of him, feeling again the tears prickle at his eyes. His fingers curled inside Stephen’s hand.

“This… Is this for me?” His voice was shaky, but Stephen understood what was the reason and he smiled encouragingly.  
“I know this is not what you wanted. You yearned for your own space close, but that I can’t give you now. So until you’ll find that place, you can feel at home here.”  
Tony turned to Stephen, disbelief and awe still strongly present in his expression.  
“This is much more I could ask for. You did this all by yourself?”

The answer was clear though. Tony didn’t know how, but he was thankful. No one have ever done something like this for him. He regretted that those herbs were dulling the bond right now. He wished so much for Stephen to feel his gratefulness.

“This is not all,” Stephen continued and pulled Tony with him along the lake and to the cave. The opening was lit with torches which seemed burning even though they had no reason to. Tony just thought the word “magic”, smiled and let it be. But what awaited him inside just made him breathless again.

A forge.  
A real forge with desks and cabinets and furnace, tools…  
Tony turned so fast back to Stephen that he bumped into his chest.

“How… How is this possible? You… How?” He was lost for words. This was so much… Too much. The demon gave him his own place to stay, all while respecting his space. He gave him his passion back. The life he’s been mourning served for him on a silver plate.

“Why? Why would you do all of this?”  
Stephen seemed momentarily taken a back. A hurt flashing in his eyes.  
“You don’t know?” The words were sad and almost seemed painful on their way out of Stephen’s mouth. A silence spread around them.  
“You love me,” Tony breathed out, suddenly as sure as that the sun was above them.

The demon said nothing. Neither confirming, neither denying. His glistening clear eyes locked onto Tony’s. The time stopped.

Nothing was happening for a moment and then Tony came crashing into Stephen’s lips like a hurricane against the mountain, moving them both a step back with a force of his urge to be in the demon’s mouth again. To feel his tongue tangle with his, to have their arms find each other and draw close. Closer. And closer. 

They kissed for what felt like hours, neither wanting to end the passionate and spontaneous reaction, until there was no air left and both of them pulled away at the same time, gasping. Their foreheads stayed connected, leaning into each other, eyes burning with hunger and breath tickling the flushed faces. Tony’s cheek was brushed by Stephen’s fingers.

“You don’t have to do this.”  
“I know,” Tony huffed and wrapped his hand around Stephen’s, turning and dragging him along to the bank of the lake.

The demon was clearly puzzled about what was happening, but only until Tony let go of his hand and stood in front of him, slowly reaching for his tunic and wrapping his fingers over the hem. He pulled. Let the cloth hit the ground. And watched how Stephen swallowed hard.

His lips formed a daring smile while the breeze cooled his exposed skin. Stephen’s eyes hardly left his chest when Tony spoke up.  
“I can do the rest or you can.”

A proposal was probably too tempting, because in the next moment Stephen’s hands were everywhere just as his mouth. He kissed and bit and sucked over the more and more skin he kept exposing until both of them ended up naked in the grass. One on top of another. Tony felt strangely comfortable with the much larger demon pinning him down. So comfortable that his cock gave a hard twitch between his legs forcing a moan out of his mouth.

Stephen reacted by happily drawing more of those when he started to rub their members together by the movements of his sharp cut hips. Tony wrapped his ankle around Stephen’s leg in the attempt to synchronize them even better. For a moment he almost lost himself in the maddening sensations.

“Please, Stephen,” he whispered near the demon’s ear after the tension became just unbearable, “take me. Take me now.”

He was crazy with lust. It had been building for too long.  
“As you wish, Anthony,” Stephen murmured against his burning skin, reaching between Tony’s legs and spreading his thighs in a very obscene manner. Tony just hoped that Cloakie was far away now otherwise he might be left traumatized for good.

The blacksmith had no idea how Stephen’s fingers suddenly became slick. Might be magic. But what interested him was whether it was a good idea to strain his fingers. Tony pushed himself up on his elbows, taking a one look at Stephen between his legs and he almost forgot what he wanted to ask.

“Should I…” he started tentatively, but the demon defiantly shook his head.  
“No, it’s worth that little pain.”  
Tony’s breath hitched in his throat. Wasn’t it what was Stephen thinking about him? That he was always worth the pain he was causing to the demon? If Tony wasn’t already so deep in this, he would have fallen even more in that single moment.

But soon as the first finger encircled his rim and pushed inside, it didn’t matter anymore. Nothing did. His back arched and was stopped by a warm hand placed on his stomach. The second finger went in soon after and then the third. Tony’s eyes were shut and his mouth open already in a silent anticipation on what will follow. 

He heard the demon breathing as hard as Tony himself and he loved the fact he could do that to another person. To him specifically.

“It’s enough,” Tony peeped after a moment, “go on. I want to… I want to ha-have you inside.”  
Tony wasn’t really expert in dirty talking, but somehow everything he said sounded like he was.  
Stephen might have growled, but Tony wasn’t sure. 

Suddenly he felt something much larger at his entrance slowly entering and pushing inside and his fingers clenched into fists at his sides. He knew this will be uncomfortable at the beginning. He hasn’t been with another man for a very long time. 

Soft fingers brushed his cheek and Tony opened his eyes seeing Stephen’s breathtaking face right in front of him. Neither of them said a word, but then Stephen moved and Tony gasped for breath. The demon’s mouth went to his neck, nibbling and kissing gently, distracting him until Stephen stretched him enough to start hitting that sweet spot hidden inside Tony’s body.

When it happened the first time, Tony moaned so loud he was sure people in the village had to hear him. What began as a light and tender movements of Stephen’s hips soon became rather erratic pounding. The one Tony was sure will leave him all sore, but couldn’t care about it at all. Their flash met with slapping sounds echoing through the space around them, filling Tony’s ears. All he could do was getting hold of Stephen’s large shoulders and hide his face in the crock of his neck when the pleasure and pain became unbearable once more.

He came first.  
All over his belly and Stephen’s hand which had helped a lot.  
And then Stephen followed. With few lazy thrusts Tony was suddenly filled with his come. It poured down his thighs when the demon pulled out and Tony had probably never felt so dirty and sated in his whole life.

He didn’t let go of him and so they ended up in a tangled mess beside each other. Touching everywhere they could. Covered in sweat and the bodily liquids. Stephen smiled at him and brushed his fingers over the length of Tony’s jaw. It was perfect.

“I didn’t want to abuse the situation. You were longing after home. I haven’t done this with any expectations,” he tried to defend himself and Tony just shook his head with a fond smile.  
“No, stop, please… I wanted this. I wanted to give you this. To give you… me.” Tony interweaved their fingers between their heaving chests. “I don’t have anything else.”  
Stephen looked baffled.  
“You are enough, Anthony. I don’t need anything else.”

That simple sentence did some wonders with Tony’s heart. 

His whole life people wanted something from him, always. Sometimes they offered things in return, sometimes not. But there were only few of them who ever wanted to just be with Tony. Few of them considered Tony enough.

“This is crazy,” Tony started slowly, he felt like he was dreaming. “I never hoped to find my happiness in the magic forest.”  
Stephen’s frown slowly disappeared.  
“I never hoped to find my happiness chained to the stone in the cave,” Stephen added his piece, smirking. 

Nothing more needed to be said. It was too soon to repeat the three words. They had time for those. Now it was simply about them being exactly where they were supposed to be and in complete peace. 

“I hoped you put a double bed in that house.”  
“Anthony…”  
“What?”  
“Of course.”

\---

A soldier stood up in front of his general, head bowed and limbs slightly trembling.  
“I am bringing the news, my lord. The man you asked to look for. Anthony Stark.”  
“Yes?”  
Another man in his late fifties walked out of the shadow and joined the general’s side. Both of them looked impatient for the said news.

The soldier swallowed dryly.  
“It seems he…”  
“What?”  
“He…”  
“Say it, soldier.”

The soldier bowed his head lower.  
“He might be dead.”

A silence which followed could be cut into pieces and yet it was suffocating.  
“Repeat it.”  
“Howard…”  
“No, Obie. My son isn’t dead. He can’t be dead. He is too smart for dying.” The voice of the head-blacksmith of the court broke just a little. 

“He just wanted to have his peace.” Howard Stark was thinking aloud, trying to be pragmatic. “Be away from the war. I let him go. He should be living his life out there. He can’t be dead. He can’t be.”  
“We will investigate it ourselves, Howard. You and me. We will go.”

The men exchanged a long look.  
“I can’t ask that of you.”  
“Stop here. We are friends, aren’t we?”  
“I want my son back.”  
“You will get him back, Howard. He will be fine, you’ll see.”

Howard Stark looked up to his oldest friend’s face, nodding. Yes. He gave Tony enough of the space. It was time for him to come home. And if by any chance the news were real… If the news were real… they will pay. Whoever dared to put a hand on his son. They will pay with their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sex scene. Here you are. Love me, please. 😅😂 A short one though the next will be longer, I promise. ❤️


	13. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The full bond is tested, but does it work out for Tony?

Just as Tony feared, there came a day when he needed to change his reactor. Fortunately, he was prepared. As best as he could for that matter. The last days he wore a spare reactor near, so when the pain started to strike all of the sudden, clenching all of his muscles and stealing his breath away, he didn’t need to crawl anywhere. Never again.

But he did scared Stephen. 

Tony didn’t remember a time when he saw him in such a panic although calm and efficiently coordinated at the surface. He helped Tony to unplug the old reactor from its slot, twisted the new one to fit in and then he just held Tony for what felt like eternity. He brushed Tony’s hair and scratched his scalp while Tony tried to find his lost breath leaning with all his weight against Stephen’s chest. 

He saw Wong then quickly hurrying to their side and when his eyes jumped from Stephen to him and then back to Stephen, where they lingered… Tony knew that Stephen had to be scared shitless, but holding up nevertheless for Tony’s sake.

The next few days Tony felt like he might have become a king somewhere between his naps, because both of the forest’s friendly-demonic occupants fulfilled his every wish and Stephen hardly left his side while he was recovering. Tony loved him more and more each day, although he didn’t find a chance to speak to him about that. 

Well… there might have been chances, but Tony was hardly a guy who wore his emotions on his sleeve. However, maybe in this particular case, he was more or less obvious or he hoped so. At least Wong had understood pretty quickly and when Tony finished his mother’s diary, he took it as his duty to teach Tony everything else he knew about the demon’s culture, the bond, brides… everything Tony might have been interested in.

Tony suck all information and stored it in his brain, but there was one topic, which still had him on his toes. 

The bond.  
He still needed to find out what it felt like when it wasn’t dulled – how Stephen actually felt all the time. The diary mentioned something unbelievable and Tony – ever curious – was eager to try.

“Are you sure, Anthony?” Wong asked hesitantly, when Tony brought up the topic. “It can be quite overwhelming.”  
“Stephen can take it,” Tony quickly opposed.

Wong pursed his lips. He did it often when Tony didn’t consider some important part in his planning.  
“Stephen is a demon. He has magic. I don’t want to claim he has it’s easy, but his magic helps to keep the bond in check. On the other side you…”

Tony was still adamant.  
“If it will be too much, I can start with the herbs again. Your mother… her bond wasn’t suppressed all the time, was it?”  
Tony knew he hit the right string.  
“No. Only when she or my father was in a great emotional distress. Then it’s necessary.”

A very disturbing thought crossed Tony’s mind and he had to voice it even if it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.  
“What will happen if one of us die?”

For a moment Tony couldn’t picture that happening, a mere thought came as unthinkable to him.  
Wong looked up from the fire and the porridge he was cooking. Tony had his full attention now.

“You should ask Stephen about it.”  
Tony had no idea how to explain that it hurt to only think about the possibility. He didn’t want to see the exact same emotions he was feeling mirroring on Stephen’s face.  
“Please,” he prodded and Wong sighed.  
“If the bond is very strong and there is no one who would force the survivor to eat the herbs in time, both bonded die. One after another. Might be a few days, perhaps weeks after.”

Tony felt his heart skip a beat. 

Damn. He needed to take a good care of himself. 

And of Stephen. There was no way he could neglect his own health from now on when aware of what might happen.

“That is another reason why you should maybe stay on the herbs. In the case of Stephen dying, you would have the biggest chance of survival.”  
Only Tony wasn’t sure if he wanted that. To survive. Without him. Without a person he had been sure he wouldn’t ever find and keep. He didn’t want to be alone again.

Wong gave him a skeptical look.  
“I know that you still have to question your feelings in its intensity.”  
Tony looked up at him from the ground where his eyes slid while he was thinking.  
“I can assure you they are real. The bond you are experiencing, the prophecy, all of that… it could be platonic. You could be the best friends with Stephen. No one and nothing forces you to be in love with him.”

Tony opened his mouth after a moment and found what he was about to say was an utter truth.  
“I know.”

Their eyes met over the fire and Wong nodded. Pleased by Tony for once being smart.  
“Good. You still want off the herbs?”  
Tony nodded with a new resolution.  
“If we stop feeding them to you now, their effect will wear on in a day. I will leave you then and return only after no less than three days.”

Tony raised his eyebrow. “Why?”

Something in Wong’s expression was giving him chills. The bastard looked amused to the core with a secret only he and perhaps Stephen knew.

“You will see.”

___

Tony had no idea. How stupidly naïve he was. It should have clicked in the first time he’d seen Wong’s diabolical expression. 

He knew the exact time when the herbs stopped to work. His whole body seized with a warmth uncomfortably rising until he felt like he might be running a fever and he had to go out of the forge immediately. He left his work, his tools scattered around and ran to the lake to cool himself down. 

“Oh, fuck. Oh. Oh. Damn.” He was breathing hard and kneeling in front of the water, in one moment diving his head under and emerging all wet and even more breathless.

He skin felt like burning and his chest was heavy. The sudden change tossing him into a full panic mode. It was only when he heard Stephen’s voice behind him that he understood what was happening to him.

The demon looked worried as hell when Tony turned his face to him.  
“I’m okay. I’m…” Tony tried to calm both of them down while the drops of water ran from his hair over his face and then fell to the ground. Water was of no help. But Tony knew exactly what was going to help him.

“Come. Please. I need you. I… I need. Stephen. It hurts.”  
The demon wasted no time. He reached Tony in a second, falling to his knees with knowing eyes and pulling Tony into a tight embrace. Everything stopped at once. Tony drew a full breath into his lungs.  
“Shhh. It’s going to be alright. It’s so bad only because you were on the herbs for a very long time.”

Stephen ran his hands under Tony’s tunic and his touch was godsend. But as soon as they parted everything came rushing back. Tony closed his eyes, launching himself on Stephen’s shoulders.  
“No, don’t stop. Please. Touch me. Don’t stop.”

Tony was begging. And maybe any other time he would feel ashamed, but not now. Right now he was desperate with need.

“Fuck me.” 

And obviously he was speaking like a slut. What the hell?  
His lips moved on his own, speaking the thoughts which should stay hidden somewhere in the corner of his dirty mind.  
“Fuck me, please.” His voice sounded raw. “I need to… I need to… have you inside.”  
Tony’s hands were undressing Stephen sooner than he could fully realize it was him doing it. And it was his hands which went between his own legs to prepare himself quickly. Stephen would be too careful. And Tony needed… Needed…

He barely remembered how the two of them made love and how Stephen filled him more than just once. The next thing he knew there was an evening outside already and he was lying in their bed on the soft pillows, his naked body covered by the cloak. Stephen’s hand was in his hair, gently brushing through the curls and his eyes were somehow pained.

“I should have warned you properly. We didn’t expect such a strong reaction. I’m so sorry.”  
Tony could only smile back at him. He felt so sated and warm and loved. The bond… He was feeling Stephen’s regret and shame and utter adoration for Tony. It was like a dream. The bond was strong and he felt it. Finally he felt it.

“Stop, please. I wanted it.”  
Tony needed him to understand. It was his choice.  
“Will I feel like this all the time?” Hungry for you beyond any sense?  
“No,” Stephen hummed, taking Tony’s other hand in his.  
“It will subdue, although the bond won’t allow us to move too far away from each other and for too long otherwise it will be uncomfortable. You will know if something happens to me. You will know how I feel if you will concentrate enough. The strongest of emotions are easy to read. Anger, regret, happiness, hope,…”  
“Love,” Tony finished for him, matching the fond expression on Stephen’s face.  
“Yes, love too.”

Tony shivered a little only to have Stephen’s arms tighten around him. He could lie like this forever and he wouldn’t regret a single second of it.

“Tell me about yourself.”  
Tony blinked.  
“What do you want to know?”

It was a fact that they started backwards. First getting magically married, then bonded while there was still so much to explore.  
“Tell me about what you were doing before you came here.”  
Oh.  
“I thought you knew. Wong knows.”

Stephen smiled encouragingly.  
“We know only what people gossip about. I want to hear it from you.” And not to make assumptions perhaps – Tony thought. 

Uh, they had time to talk. Before Tony would lose his mind again.

“Well, I am a blacksmith.” Observation of the year. “I was a head blacksmith for some time in the capital, but I left the title to my father after…” Tony’s fingers mindlessly touched the reactor in his chest, his movement followed by Stephen’s remorseful eyes.  
“My mother was a lovely woman, but she is dead now. I’ve had a strained relationship with my father for the most part of my life. I was a difficult child and he was a difficult parent. But a lot of changed when he thought I might die from the injury. After I recovered, he let me go to have my peace and I came where my friends already had moved. I tried to stay subtle working mostly on ceremonial swords and daggers – that sort of thing. And I finally started some of my personal projects, focusing on the armor and protection instead of explosives.”

Stephen was watching Tony with interest the whole time he was speaking. He didn’t interrupt until Tony fell silent again.

“You love what you do.”  
“Yes,” Tony agreed immediately. Stephen perhaps didn’t even know how much Tony appreciated the forge. He gave Tony his passion back. 

“What about you? Your family?” Tony asked after a long time of silence. He almost fell asleep in the meantime feeling all cozy and safe. He had an idea about the possible answer, but he still needed to ask.

“All dead. Except Wong.”  
When Tony frowned, scarred fingers brushed his cheek.  
“It was a long time ago. Don’t be troubled by it. I’m happy to have you now.” His heart might have shuddered in happiness and Tony had no idea how much good it did to his health.  
“And Wong. You have also Wong,” Tony reminded.  
“And Wong,” Stephen agreed.  
“And our birds.”  
Stephen’s smile widened.  
“And our birds.”  
“And our kittens.”  
Now they both laughed.  
“It sounds like a big family.”  
Tony couldn’t comprehend all the affection he was seeing in Stephen’s eyes.  
“It does.”

Tony laughed some more when he remembered Wong. Coward. Maybe Stephen didn’t exactly know what would happen to Tony, but Wong knew. And he ran away. Well, he had to return some day. And Tony was already plotting his sweet revenge.

Three days.  
That’s what Wong said.

Uh, he only hoped Stephen was free until then. 

\---

Wong came back as he’d promised – three days later. Tony never admitted it was him who let his kittens into Wong’s bed to scare the shit out of him the moment he decided to lie down. And if he switched salt and sugar on his shelve, no one had to know that either.

\---

“Stephen?”  
“Yes?”

Tony turned from his drawings all the way to face the demon with his hands fidgeting in his lap. They were in Tony’s workshop, connected to the forge, a small and cozy place where he could go wild with his imagination. Stephen had accompanied him here more or less on a daily bases now.

They would sit down, Tony immediately drawn in his thoughts and scrawling on any piece of paper he could get a hold of, while Stephen would end up with a fond smile, recovering to the corner of the room and diving into some of his books.

It wasn’t the only thing they grew up to do together. Every other day Stephen would stay the night and Tony would wake up to the most amazing of the sights – a clumsy and adorable demon crawling out of the warm bed to bring him coffee. It was a dream come true. Usually both of them would have to go their separate ways for a bigger part of the day. 

Stephen still had things to do around the huge forest, but then he would eventually find his way back to his lover’s cabin. Sometimes he just went and sat up somewhere without announcing himself, having a great fun of watching Tony so invested in his work that he wouldn’t even notice. Sometimes he would come and curl his hands around Tony’s middle and press a kiss to his cheek or to his jaw or to his hair when he felt particularly Tony-starved.

And sometimes Tony would turn his head sooner than the demon could perform any of that and their lips would meet and many more kisses would lead them away from work and to bed. 

Tony was happy.

He didn’t remember a time when he could say that about himself. Not like this.

Of course, his friends had made him happy before, but otherwise he was lonely as long as he remembered. 

Now he felt balanced. In peace.

“What is it, darling?”  
Yes. Right.

Tony gazed into glowing depths of demon’s eyes and panicked for a moment.  
“You remember what Wong said about trying out your… spells?”  
He could see a dark shadow move over Stephen’s features at instant.  
“I was thinking we could maybe do it today? Only if you feel up to it?” Tony tried, but he was ready to stop pushing if it was too soon or too much.

Wong had innocently prodded the last time they’d shared a meal about their full bond and how maybe perhaps now Stephen would be able to channel his energy better with Tony’s help. And Tony did want to help. He was eager to jump over the chance to return some of the kindness back to the demon.

Tony looked up, hungry for Stephen’s reaction. Anything beside the silence and stiffened body facing him.  
“We… we might try.”

Tony was sure the demon did this only because Tony had asked in the first place. It almost seemed like he didn’t believe he was able to do anything beside fighting and protecting spellwork. Not anymore. Tony saw so much more in him and he was ready to make Stephen see it too. 

Wong had said it was possible and that had to be enough. If it didn’t work, Tony wouldn’t force him to continue. But not to try at all? That wasn’t in their natures. 

“Wong told me what to do. He said to start with something small,” Tony said as they sat outside near the lake at their usual spots. The air wasn’t so warm anymore. The autumn was coming. But they were well clothed and had a thick blanket beneath them. 

Tony reached for Stephen’s hands, trying his best not to take it personally when the demon flinched from his careful touch.  
“I’m sorry,” Stephen apologized, immediately realizing what had happened. Tony only smiled and this time he let his palms open and inviting between them, so Stephen could place his hands there, when he was ready. 

“Wong said you were once able to fasten the growth of crops. Do you want to try it with a… let’s say a flower?” Tony gently squeezed the fingers Stephen had entrusted in his care and smiled at him.  
“Maybe that one?”  
Both of them turned towards the small blue flower growing next to them. It looked almost lost between the grass and other flowers opened and in a full spring. Tony had no idea about the name. Everything in the forest seemed special. He should ask Stephen or Wong to teach him about this magic place which he might just start calling home very soon.

Tony returned his attention to Stephen and how uncertain he looked. The demon opened his mouth, then closed it, then shook his head.  
“I don’t think I can do this, Anthony. My hands…”  
Tony didn’t let him finish.  
“Your hands are still very capable, Stephen, and now you have mine as well. Let me help. Use our bond. I can’t really help you beside offering myself to be your anchor. I don’t understand how this works, but I know you do. You can do it. Maybe not today, maybe not in a month or a year, but eventually. All I ask is for you to try.”

Tony wanted to let him know he wasn’t trying to put a pressure on him. It was okay. 

Stephen pursued his lips and drew a deep breath into his lungs. Tony watched him gaze up at the flower. His eyes soon followed.

Come on.  
Come on.  
I know you can do it. 

He kept glancing between the flower and Stephen’s intense stare. It could be hours or only mere minutes. However, when the demon’s hands started to tremble, Tony tensed.

“Okay, it’s okay… Let’s have a break… We don’t have to do it tod…”  
“Anthony!”

Tony was so absorbed with a concern that he almost missed it. 

He almost missed a miracle happening right before his very eyes.

The blue flower, shimmering in the sun’s beams, ever so slightly opened her petals like an invitation for Tony to gape, afraid not to miss any sign of the plant being affected by Stephen’s magic. If it was only this small display of his powers returning, Tony would be satisfied to the core. But there was more. In another minute Tony was facing a full grown flower, blue as the summer skies, so beautiful that it was almost painful to look away.

Tony was glad he managed that after all, because Stephen’s expression of utter awe was totally worth it. 

Tony looked at him with all of the admiration he could master, his fingers brushing Stephen’s scars and gaining his attention back.

For a moment they didn’t talk, only held each other’s gaze, a smile infecting both of their faces.  
“I…” Stephen started after all, but he was clearly lost for words. Tony would swear he saw his eyes glistening.  
“It’s okay. You did it. You did it,” he repeated slowly watching as the demon alternated between facing Tony and the flower.

This was big.  
This could change a lot of things.  
If Stephen could heal again, help crops grow…  
People might stop fearing him so much. 

But that was the thought for another day. Now all Tony wanted to do was to let Stephen’s expression full of love and respect and wonder imprint into his memory. It was hard to believe that Tony was any near worth that kind of affection.

“Thank you,” the demon said slowly, his smile warming Tony more than Cloakie sneaking around and onto Tony’s shoulders.  
“Don’t,” Tony warned him playfully. 

When he reached for the kiss, Stephen moved to meet him like Tony was his magnet, drawing him in and leaving him unable to resist. They parted minutes later, out of breath and with grins matching. 

“I think we can work on this later,” Tony offered and Stephen nodded to that, clearly motivated by his success today. The blacksmith didn’t dare to ask how long it was since Stephen could do this kind of spellwork. He wasn’t in any rush to burst the bubble.

“And then we might take a vacation…”  
Stephen raised one of his eyebrows.  
“To go and see some friends…”  
That eyebrow was still going up.  
“I swear Pepper cooks 100% better soup than Wong, but don’t let him know I told you that.”

He’d promised Rhodey. 

“You miss them still.” It was a declaration and although it sounded like Stephen might be saddened by “not being enough”, there was also a hint that he understood it wasn’t that simple. Tony loved only few people, but he loved deeply.

“You have my word I won’t let Rhodey shoot at you.”  
Nope, that eyebrow could definitely rise higher. One corner of Stephen’s lips followed.  
“Then you have a deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, darlings,
> 
> feed me with your thoughts and ideas. I have some structure for the last chapters, but the end is still quite open. :)  
> I added one more chapter for now because you are such a sweethearts. Love you.
> 
> Find me also on my [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ironstrangerule). :)


	14. The Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just read. :) Kitten are there.

Tony hooped onto the bed enthusiastically, expecting that the motion would encourage Stephen to open his mesmerizing eyes at least if not making him fully wake up. The demon had been sleeping for the better part of the day after he’d successfully sent some of the not-so-nice-fellow-demons into their respective dimension kicking and screaming. 

Tony couldn’t sleep at all until he had Stephen right there beside him, but he wasn’t any near the critical red dot on the exhaustion scale like Stephen had been. However, being connected had some pros too. For example Tony knew exactly what his other half needed and now he was sure that food was winning over the sleep.

“Stephen, honey, wake up.”  
And yes, he might have been a bit paranoid. He wanted to see that his demon was fine. He wanted to see him stir and grumble and crack one of his eyes open. 

When all of those actions happened, not necessarily in this order, Tony had already a big smile plastered over his face and one of his hands went quickly into Stephen’s white streaks.

“Good evening, sleepyhead. You hungry?” Tony asked even despite that he knew what the answer would be and was actually acting on it.  
“Wong invited us for a diner outside. It’s almost ready and the weather is nicely warm. Weird. But well… magic. I know. Are you with me?”  
Stephen murmured something incoherent and damn was he cute. Tony was aware that he had one of the most dangerous beasts in his bed and yet in that moment he could cuddle it to death.

Stephen blinked at him several times, a small smile spreading over his lips like only seeing Tony was making his day better. But then his eyelids went down again and Tony grimaced. He was about to start prodding again when something in Stephen’s hair caught his attention. At first he thought those were only his senses playing with him, but then the curls of hair moved and he narrowed his eyes.

Everything stilled. Was this magic? Did Stephen’s hair move on their own? 

A soft meow then hit his ears and Tony didn’t even try to hide his surprise when tiny paws appeared between the black curls, soon followed by the pinky nose and the pair of ocean blue eyes. Butterfingers looked just as put off as Tony felt. The tiny thing daring to look all innocent like it didn’t understand why was Tony shaking his head with a laugh and reaching out with his hands.

“What are you doing?” a sleepy voice interrupted him from freeing his kitten out of its make-shift nest and Tony’s eyes awkwardly locked with Stephen’s.  
“Uh, you have something… well… here… wait… I’ll… uh… fetch it? Don’t… move… Uhhh… Here!”  
Tony pulled the animal out with a cry of victory and sheepishly put it down into his lap. More confused meows came out from the kitten, but one look from Tony was enough for it to fall silent right away.  
“He is obviously very sorry and won’t ever make a bed out of you again,” Tony apologized on the behalf of his misbehaving companion. 

He met with Stephen’s warm-filled eyes, still adoringly blinking. The demon sat on the bed slowly, the blanket sliding down his shoulders and revealing the two other accomplices curled against Stephen’s hip - only now opening their eyes. U and Dum-e both looked a bit lost, not understanding why their source of warmth was moving away from them all of the sudden.

Tony was giggling at that point, hardly holding up.  
“Okay, guys. I am kind of jealous. You cuddle with him more than I do.”  
Stephen huffed a chuckle on his own, leaning in to greet Tony with a soft kiss over his lips.  
“But they don’t get the full services, do they?” Stephen asked playfully, making Tony shiver with the anticipation of what those words meant.

Perhaps not now. He needed to feed his lover first. Playtime could wait a bit longer.

“Wong is cooking. Come,” Tony took the demon by his claws carefully so he wouldn’t hurt himself in the process of hauling Stephen out of the warm bed. The next moment there were suddenly fingers wrapped around his wrist, squeezing gently and Tony stopped in his tracks.  
“I have something to show you first.”

Tony turned back, eyeing Stephen with curiosity.

They emerged from the small house the blacksmith occupied more or less with Stephen now as he spent there almost all of his free time and they marched slowly towards the cave. Tony made puppy eyes when they passed all the mess he’d created while working, but Stephen didn’t mean to show him “how to clean up properly.” No. He was leading Tony deeper into the cave’s tunnels - the ones which had been sealed with magic, the ones Tony hadn’t had an impulse to explore before. He had no idea how to open them even if he wanted to.

Observing how the transparent walls only reacted to Stephen’s touch, he probably wouldn’t have a chance to get through anyway.

“Why are we here? You aren’t going to finally eat me alive, are you?” Tony asked, smirking when Stephen puffed out a chuckle and pulled him in. They entered a circular room which looked too well structured for the nature’s work. It was lit by what seemed to be artificial yellowish light, powering up as Stephen walked around. In the middle there was a stone pedestal upon which a small object lied down. It resembled a jewelry of a sort. A necklace? It looked heavy. Tony stepped near, watching out for Stephen’s reaction.

The demon did nothing so that meant he had a free pass, right? 

He squeezed both his hands at his sides in order not to touch. He knew better than to mingle with magical objects. Learnt the rule hard way. And this… eye?... whatever it was – it screamed magic. 

“What is it?” 

One thing had to be said. It was beautiful. Whoever created it, it turned out to be a very fine artistic work.

Tony encircled the pedestal, lifting his eyes to find Stephen at the other side.  
“It’s the Eye of Agamotto, a very powerful relic,” Stephen replied slowly, following Tony’s eyes while they slid over the features of the said object.  
“It is very old and it answered only to few of the guardians before. Wong said he had recently witnessed it… acting weird.”  
“Weird? What does it mean?”

Tony had a strange feeling. Like the freaking necklace was drawing him somehow closer despite his better judgement. It wanted him to reach with his hand and touch it. Tony had to squeeze his fingers further to prevent himself from doing just that.

“It showed the signs of awaking,” Stephen’s voice sounded far far away in the distance and that made no sense whatsoever, “it was… whispering to me when I went to look yesterday.”

Tony found the tips of his fingers brushing something cold and he almost freaked out when he realized he was holding onto the stone – standing much closer to the object than just mere seconds ago.

“It wanted me to bring you, Tony.” Stephen’s words were muffled and he hardly managed to hear them at all.  
“Why?”  
The question seemed ridiculous. Tony knew why. Somewhere deep inside the answer to this question was being born without him realizing. It was slowly drifting to the surface, breaking through the haze.

“He calls only for its masters.”  
Tony heard his heart beating hard against his ribcage. He almost didn’t hear a quiet “careful” when the tips of his fingers made a contact with the relic and suddenly it lit with a bright green color. It was only a second. A short second when Tony saw something unbearable. A short second when his heart stopped beating for a painfully long moment – so painfully long…

Stephen’s corpse lying in the middle of the meadow near their house. Tony’s veil covering his beautiful pale face. His eyes open and distant. Robes lying spread between the grass. Dead. Dead. Dead…

Tony tore away from the pedestal.  
He couldn’t breathe. His chest was on fire.

He felt the ground when he pulled away from the stone and fell backwards. 

There were hands wrapping around him just a next moment and maybe, just maybe he heard that familiar soothing voice calling his name. 

Tony had no idea how he got out of the cave’s tunnels. All he knew was that soon enough he was stumbling through his tools on the ground led by the pair of strong hands on his shoulders. 

“Anthony… My love… Please, talk to me…”  
He lifted his gaze, realizing he was seated in the grass now. Wong was there, kneeling on his left and Stephen in front of him. They booth looked terrified. How long was he out?

God, Stephen.  
Tony placed both of his hands on the face before him, making sure this was real and what he saw in the cave was not. That the man he so desperately needed and wanted and… loved… was okay.  
“The Eye. It showed him something,” Wong said and that was it. Tony felt the tears starting to collect in his eyes, one of them sliding down his cheek without much ceremony.

Stephen’s face twisted in something what could be described only as agony.  
“I shouldn’t have brought him there.” Wong probably tried to opposite him, but the demon wasn’t paying much attention to that. Instead he was frantically trying to stop Tony’s tears from falling and when that didn’t help, he pulled the blacksmith into his arms, holding him as close and as tightly as he dared.

“Wha… What was that?” Tony stuttered into Stephen’s shoulder. 

God, he was scared.  
The image of the dead body haunting him every time he blinked.

“Future,” someone said and he went rigid in Stephen’s embrace.  
“A possibility,” Stephen corrected immediately, “one of many possible futures.”  
Tony forced himself to take a full breath in order not to pass out. This was not how he imagined this evening to go out. Not at all.

“What you saw…” Wong’s voice carried forward without Tony being able to see him or to see anything in particular but a piece of Stephen’s robes, “it is only for you, Tony. I know it’s hard. But the Eye of Agammoto chose you for a reason. It always does.”

This was insane. He was not like Stephen or Wong. He wasn’t supposed to deal with such things. How he was about to deal with this? How he should prevent this? How? How?

Stephen’s hand helped to maneuver his face so he could lock his eyes with the demon’s.  
“You don’t have to think about it now. Let it be. It’s okay. Whatever you saw, it’s the future. It can wait. We can talk about it later. Just calm down, please. I feel your pain and sadness and fear. You are hardly breathing, love. You need to breathe.”

Tony didn’t know how to do any of what was Stephen asking of him. But he could focus on the sweet affectionate tone he was hearing, on the “love” word, which could only refer to him. He could focus on that. That was good. Nice. Just like Stephen’s cheek pressed against the side of his face.

He fell asleep a little time later.  
Exhausted. Scared to death even in his dreams.  
But there was a pair of strong hands holding him through the worst of it. 

It had to be quite surprising for everyone that Tony wanted to go back the next day. He wasn’t known for giving up so easily or for blindly accepting anything screaming “fate” – more so if so called fate wanted to take away the person Tony cared about so much.  
As soon as his head started working properly again, his brain recalibrating, he rushed to the green gem, studying it, asking questions, learning the history, the use, everything…

Stephen answered all he could. Also explaining in theory how the Eye was supposed to make time travels possible… things like time loops – whatever that actually meant and Tony listened to his words like a drowning man listens for a rush of water on the desert. 

The dread mixed with fascination each time he was near the relic. It was so easy to become obsessed when Stephen’s dead eyes were all what was looking back at Tony from his dreams.

The demon had noticed too. He noticed and he acted, trying to distract Tony as much as possible. And it worked… in a way. But they could stay busy in bed only for some time.

Like that the idea of visiting Rhodey and Pepper returned all glory and white petals and Stephen now seemed more eager to go if it meant getting Tony away from the relic and his obsession.

They didn’t try to warn Tony’s friends in advance and Tony regretted that when he thought about Pepper and her pregnancy. Maybe it wasn’t wise to stress her now. Maybe they could come later. Maybe thinking about this while they were standing in front of their doors was a bit too late.

Stephen moved to bang on the door, probably sensing out Tony’s dilemma and the blacksmith shut his mouth and clenched his fists so he wouldn’t try to stop him. A whole new fear settled over his head. Will his friends be as acceptable as he would like them to be? Was even Stephen okay with this? Was he uncomfortable?

Tony didn’t even think about how hard this might be for him, facing a possible rejection from the people closest to his bonded one. Tony was such a mess these days. 

A love-filled sigh dragged out of his lips when he thought about Rhodey and how his friend would probably knew immediately what to advice him. He was happy to be here. He wanted to see them. But if this goes wrong… Tony gazed at Stephen’s hand next to his, their fingers barely touching until he interlaced them with Stephen’s eyes gently lifting towards his face. He smiled encouragingly and Tony knew he would stand by the demon against anyone, even his own friends.

“Don’t… I’ll go open. Go sit down… Shhh… Listen to your husband, woman!”  
“I’m not sick, James! I can go open a damn door, don’t look at me like that!”  
Tony’s lips spread into a big grin, all of the stress he was feeling slowly dying as both of them heard more quarrelling through the closed doors until suddenly there was Rhodey speaking to his face and coming abruptly short on the words still addressed to his wife behind him.

The four people stared at each other for what felt like eternity. Tony was first to crack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have officially caught the kitten obsession, thank you very much. XD 
> 
> Sorry for a big pause everyone. I hope you are still waiting for the story. I added two more chaps, because I just can't cut it short and I love you all too much. :)
> 
> I should have more time in the next weeks, so I'll probably also get to the "christmas tumblr gift" where you would be able to give me prompts for short one chapter stories. Keep checking my [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ironstrangerule) for the post. XD Also, I'm going to have a month full of studying now, so I guess I will need some distraction. Is here anyone who would like to play an ironstrange roleplay? 
> 
> I would love to find someone who has time to engage, an imagination to build the story with me and of course some basic grammar to work with. I can explain all in further details once you let me know. :) If there would be more of you, we can stay in touch and play some other time (I need to study too, of course, although I don't want to.) XD XD.
> 
> Sending you a lot of post-christmas love. Let me know how you liked the chapter and how you spent your holiday or how are you in general, if you don't celebrate. :)


	15. Screams and pleas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Still here?

                                                

Tony lifted his eyes from now the empty bowl in front of him, blinking both at Rhodey and Pepper on the other side of the table. Stephen’s steady presence on his side was something Tony was drawing his energy from while explaining everything what had happened since he’d been taken away. For the last two hours he’d put a lot of attention into mentioning every important detail from his stubbornness at the beginning to the slowly building relationship between him and the demon. His primary aim was to make his friends believe that he wasn’t bewitched or crazy. There wasn’t any spell making him pliant or clouding his critical thinking.

He was in love.  
It was that simple.

Rhodey looked skeptical, but perhaps not as much as Pepper. He’d heard it once before after all. Tony could understand. They were worried. They’d believed him to be dead and now he was here, without a scratch, trying to explain how his abduction was the best thing that could happen to him.

“So you’re saying that… you have home there now. In that forest. You are not…” Rhodey’s eyes moved towards the demon cautiously. “You have a choice, right? To leave. Just like you told me before.”

When Tony looked at Stephen, he saw him completely still. There were no emotions to read so he lowered his eyes back down on Rhodey, worried how he would perceive such an action. That was stupid, Tony!

“I can leave. I don’t want to,” Tony said slowly, looking straight into his friend’s eyes. No lies. Please, Rhodey, you have to believe me.

Rhodey looked ready for the next round of tireless questions when Pepper beat him to it. Her long blond hair pulled out of her face in the ponytail and big belly hidden beneath the table weren’t making her look any less intimidating.

“If he’s really like you say, Tony, why isn’t he helping?”  
Tony’s eyes narrowed.  
“I don’t…”  
“Why isn’t he doing something with the crops?” Pepper made herself more clear, interrupting his puzzled guessing. Her calculating eyes turned now on the demon.  
“I already explained how it was between our kinds,” Tony stated firmly.  
Pepper nodded. “Yes, but that was long time ago. We don’t even remember it anymore. Why should we suffer for our ancestor’s mistakes?”

Stephen wore the same expression. Tony expected him to defend himself, but somewhere deep inside he knew that wasn’t how Stephen behaved.

Tony looked at Pepper, forcing her eyes back on him.  
“He remembers it, Pep. They live much longer than we do. It doesn’t look fair to me asking them to simply forget on all the wrong that had been done to them over those years.”  
Both of Tony’s friends fell silent after that, contemplating.

Tony wasn’t about to say how hard it actually was for Stephen to relearn how to use his powers for non-destructive purposes. How for a long time he hadn’t believed it was even possible. Tony wouldn’t betray his trust like that be exposing his weaknesses, more so when he knew it was a sensitive topic. That’s why he stayed awestruck when the demon started to speak himself for the first time since they’ve appeared on his friends’ threshold.  
Stephen explained his reasons in a calm deep voice showing none of the insecurities that Tony knew he must be feeling.

Another long pause came after that and then Pepper’s eyes cleared and warmed a bit.

“I understand,” she said after a long pause, “you must forgive us. People are afraid. It’s harder to grow something each passing year. Winters are tough. James and I… we are trying, but we are also afraid it won’t be enough.” Pepper’s hand unconsciously went to her belly, caressing the unborn baby.

Tony thought how simple it would be if both of his friends could just come with him. There was always warm in the forest, the only passing seasons summer and the other a mixture of fall and spring. Everything was green all the time. But he knew that wasn’t possible. They had their lives built here just like he had his with Stephen now.

Another idea came rushing into his mind, making him turn his head sharply where he expected Stephen to gaze into the wall. To Tony’s surprise, the demon wasn’t away in the spirit, he was starring right back into Tony’s excited eyes.

“Could it be done?” he asked carefully, trying to suppress the hope from his voice.  
Stephen nodded after a moment of thinking, his eyes sparkling with magic.  
“Perhaps.”  
“We could try…”  
“Yes, we could.”

Rhodey’s attention jumped from one to other, his brows furrowed in amusement and curiosity.  
“What? Now you can read each other thoughts?”  
Tony turned back to face his friend, grinning.

“How are your supplies?”  
“Low,” Rhodey deadpanned. His expression slightly darkening.  
“Is it the time for harvest already?”  
Pepper nodded. “Yes, but there isn’t much to collect.”  
Tony gazed at Stephen.  
“There might be.”

Rhodey opened his mouth, but he was again interrupted by Tony abruptly jumping on his feet.  
“What are you doing?”  
Tony’s smile widened. In the corner of his eye he saw Stephen standing up as well.  
“Magic,” he said, “we’re going to do magic.”

They walked out and found a small field right behind the house which looked like a storm had ran right through it. It was devastated. Rhodey kneeled down and dived his fingers into the soil, his expression worrisome.

“I don’t know if you can do anything with this, Tony. Look.”  
Yes. The soil was bad. A potato that Rhodey dug out small and rotten. But Tony looked at Stephen and he found hope and resolution in other’s eyes.

They walked in the middle of the field side by side accompanied by curious looks of Tony’s friends.  
“Don’t step in!” Tony called out. He wasn’t sure how magic could affect other people nearby. Wong didn’t exactly count when they had been practicing this.

“Tony,” Stephen’s voice was a bit unsure and his hands trembled more than usual when holding Tony’s.  
“I know…” Tony whispered with a reassuring smile. “It’s alright. If it doesn’t work, we at least tried, right?”

After a much firmer nod, Tony moved behind Stephen’s back and when the demon crouched down towards the ground, knees digging in and hands splayed in the lumps of clay, he put his own hands on Stephen’s shoulders. The connection was needed. He was Stephen’s anchor. He was his strength now. And he will bring him back the joys of healing people and soil just like it was in the past. That was the least he could do to replay him his kindness.

Tony braced himself against the energy he was about to feel and once it came flowing through his body, gentle and ravishing at the same time, he was ready. He closed his eyes and kept them like that for quite some time, trying to supply everything Stephen needed through their bond. He could swear that he felt the field whine softly and then it suddenly stopped, and Tony felt the happiness and excitement radiating from it as the field was a living, breathing being.

“Tony!”  
Someone called his name, but it wasn’t Stephen. He slowly blinked his eyes open and found Rhodey kneeling just at the border of the field. There was a potato big as his hand in his lap and Pepper dug more with her fingers, laughing.

Tony smiled too.  
It worked.  
Gods, it worked!

Stephen was slowly standing up. Suddenly there was nothing to hold onto and Tony found himself stumbling a step forward until the firm hands picked him up and held against his chest. He felt dizzy. The warmth of the magic slowly leaving his body made him feel strangely vulnerable.

“Tony, love… Are you alright? Do you want to sit down?” Now, that was definitely Stephen’s voice. Each time Tony heard it, his heart shuddered in his chest.

“I… Yes… Can we go… inside?”  
“Of course,” Stephen adjusted his Cloak over Tony’s shoulder. He probably didn’t want to worry Pepper or Rhodey with more display of magic, but Cloakie still subtly held most of Tony’s weight while walking back in the house.

There were more worried touches and words once he was seated on the bed, but after few quick checking spells he heard Stephen explaining it was only a magical drain and Tony will fully recover. This was actually the furthest they got with their bond work. Tony’s body had to just rest and adjust to changes. One of the thoughts crossing Tony’s mind was whether these changes included that he would stop to age now. He had to ask… but first, bed. Bed looked promising and so, oh, so soft.

He was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The next time he woke up it was already dark outside and for quite a moment he had literally no idea where he was. His brain slowly supplied him with all the right information every passing minute. He was alone in the bedroom with one candle burning brightly on the nightstand and there were voices drawing from the room in the front of the house.

Yes. Tony remembered.  
They’d cured the field.  
Rhodey and Pepper will survive the winter.

He stretched his legs on the floor after sitting up. His whole body aching but not in the uncomfortable way. More like when a person spends hours in the hot water and then the old pains just pop out their ugly heads.

He sat for a moment knowing too well that quick movement would land him again at the same spot. And he was deadly curious about the current talk in the kitchen, too curious for staying where he was.

Tony walked slowly leaning with his hand for the support against the wall and entered the other room as quietly as possible. Of course, Stephen’s senses picked up on his arrival regardless. Suddenly the talk came to an abrupt stop and all the heads turned his way.

“Tony! Hey!” Rhodey was the first to jump from his chair and run towards him. In the corner of his vision Tony saw Stephen letting him and silently observing whether his help was needed. Tony, however, was good enough to walk and when he stopped near the table, his smile had to melt away all the worries.

“You did it,” he said softly. He was so damn proud, and it had to show.  
Stephen’s eyes shone brightly with unspoken emotions, his hands reaching for Tony. Both of them sighed in relief when they could touch again, seeking as much contact as possible.

“It’s all thanks to you. Thank you, my love. I would have never dreamt about being able to do this again.”

Tony’s breath caught in his throat. He wanted to just forget where they are and drag Stephen towards the bed right now and here, but they had company. Both Pepper and Rhodey were standing nearby looking too happy and too pleased by what they were seeing for Tony to comprehend easily.

“Okay, what did you do with them?” Tony asked, then he leaned closer and whispered in a mocked conspiration. “Did you put a spell on them?”

Stephen snorted, but said nothing. It was Rhodey who spoke up looking more at Stephen than Tony.  
“We had a talk…”

Tony waited for the rest, but there was only a painfully stretching silence and a lot of mischievous smiles.  
“And?”

Pepper laughed warmly, sliding under her husband’s arm where she fit perfectly.  
“And we acknowledged Stephen to be a good partner for you.”  
Tony found that cute. Well, it wasn’t like he needed anyone’s permission, but he wished for  
approval.

“Is that because of the field?” He asked curious.  
Rhodey, Pepper and Stephen exchanged silent glances.  
“And other things…” Rhodey admitted, a small smile playing on his lips.

What did you tell them? Tony thought, tilting his head when Stephen only matched their smiles.  
“I feel left out. Completely. What is this, hm? Ganging-up on poor Tony?”

“I don’t think he could side with anyone against you,” Pepper nudged him gently. “I need to tell you that the first time Rhodey came home and said he’d seen you, I was skeptical, but I believed him. I was worried sick that he understood the situation wrongly. That you might be hurting and in need of our help.”  
Pepper shook her head. “But you don’t need our help. You are right where you’re supposed to be and we are happy for you, Tony.”

Tony didn’t know what to say so instead he took Pepper in his arms.  
“Thank you,” he whispered in her hair. She was like his sister. They were the closest to the family he got.

“We should go, Anthony… Wong will be worried,” Stephen warned after few long seconds and Tony reluctantly let go.  
“Yes… Yes.”  
“He’s right,” now it was Rhodey who gave him a bear hug. “Take care, my dear friend. We will be waiting on your next visit. You need to come and see the little princess.”  
“Prince,” Pepper corrected him immediately and Tony smirked.  
“First make up your mind,” he hummed, watching in awe how next thing Rhodey extended his hand towards Stephen.

Even if the demon hesitated, Tony knew it wasn’t because of the distrust. He tensed, but Rhodey was surprisingly gentle with Stephen’s hands just as Pepper when it was her turn.

“Thank you for the crops, Stephen.” Rhodey said and the demon bowed his head slightly.  
“You’re welcome.”  
“Do you think you could do it for others too? In the future?” Pepper asked with a hopeful tone.  
“Perhaps,” Stephen answered. All of them knew it wasn’t that simple though.  
“We need to strengthen our bond first,” Tony said, “I have a lot to learn.”

They seemed to understand.

Pepper brough Tony a cup of water and they spent some time talking in front of their house before they went on their way. Tony wasn’t worried to go in the night as he knew that Stephen could see well in the dark and he knew all of the safe pathways through the forest. They said their goodbyes with Tony already longing after his two friends. He wasn’t sure when there will be a chance to meet them again.

He had still much to do. As he glanced at Stephen walking by his side, he remembered what task was awaiting him home. The one always on his mind. Waking him up from his dreams in the night and causing concern both at Stephen’s and Wong’s faces.

The relic.

He had to find out why the future wanted his lover dead.

OOO

Howard Stark was old and tired. He had no other attributes on his mind connected with his person while crossing the whole country for three months. His head was throbbing, and his feet were swollen that he barely fit them in his boots. He was in no shape for such a journey, yet he was here.

Obie was different.

He was in the army. He was used to long marching. The difference between the two men was obvious. It was more for Howard’s sakes than anyone else’s that they had stopped again to rest. And each time they had done that for the past weeks, Howard had felt a stab of guilt. Every day they rested could be the last day for his son. Despite knowing that he couldn’t force his old body to go any faster or his bones to stop aching.

“We should be moving,” he murmured not for the first time and Obie in his chair turned his head towards Howard. The goblet in his hand reflected the light of the torches on the sides od the large tent.

“We need to rest. Everyone needs it,” he answered not for the first time either.

When Howard stayed silent, Obadiah sighed.  
“I know, my friend, I know. But we are only a mere week away from that village. We need to gather our strength for a possible fight.”  
Howard nodded his head after a moment.  
“Thank you, Obie. Thank you for all of this.”

The other man laughed deeply, taking few gulps of the wine.  
“We’ve talked about this. Don’t thank me. He’s like a son to me, you know that… We’ll get him back, I swear, Howard.”

The blacksmith smiled even though his whole expression was strained. He would never forgive himself if they were late and Anthony…

“Sir! Sir!”  
A soldier suddenly ran into their tent. Obie sprung to his feet red in the face and ready to scold him when the young man opened his mouth again.

“I have news, Sir. About Athony Stark. There is a man claiming he’s a merchant. He was returning from the village where Anthony lived before he had been taken.”

Howard’s heart started to beat so loud he almost missed Obie’s first question after the man had been quickly led into the tent.

“You said to my man that you know Anthony Stark? Speak now and you’ll be rewarded, good man.”  
An old merchant only few years younger than Howard himself bowed his head and nodded.

“Yes, Sir. I know him. He’s a blacksmith. The best one I’ve ever met. I made deals with him in the past and when I was in the village, I always came to pay him a visit and ask if he had something interesting for me.”

“You are speaking about him in the present time,” Howard interjected, his patience running out faster than he thought it would, “does that mean he’s still alive? Can you confirm it?”

The merchant’s face twisted in regret and his hands tightened the hold on his cap.  
“No, Sir, I can’t confirm it.”

Howard’s closed his eyes exhaling. When the man started to speak again, hit attention rose ack to life.

“But there is a man in the village who claimed that he’d seen Anthony with that… beast.” The merchant swallowed uncomfortably.  
“When?” Obadiah asked firmly.  
“Two weeks ago.”

Howard’s hope was resurrected.  
“Where did they see him? Was he unharmed? Speak at once!”

“Yes, yes, he was unharmed, but the witness said the beast put some kind of a spell on him for sure. He didn’t try to escape. They saw him and the beast at the house of Anthony’s friend James Rhodes and his wife, but soon after they returned into that god forsaken forest. They appeared to be affected by the magic as well.”

“Oh, my boy.” Howard dropped down heavily into his seat. There was a moment of silence, Obie giving him a chance to ask more.

“Say, what do you know about those beasts? The Bird-King that is how they call that thing, right?”  
“Yes, Sir.” The man nodded enthusiastically.  
“I know that he lives in the forest. He’s very old. People in towns far away from the places like that don’t even believe in their existence anymore. But those living in the villages know better than to draw the beast’s wrath. Over hundreds of years they always took someone and gave the person to the beast. Anthony is a good boy. Very good. But he is also skillful beyond people’s imagination. Some of them believed that Anthony was gifted with magic before he was even taken and that is why they chose him. At least that is what they said. Magic likes magic.”

“That is a lie!” Howard shouted suddenly, jumping from his seat again only to be carefully guided back by Obie’s hands a second later.  
“Don’t speak about my son like that. He is no magician!”

“I’m sorry, Sir,” the man bowed even lower, “I only speak what I was told.”

“Yes, yes, we know,” Obadiah turned to him clearly taking the lead for now.  
“Speak more about this savage ritual. You seem to know a lot. Do you know how to break Anthony free of that beast’s magic when we get to him?”  
“No,” the man admitted, “I don’t know about that. I only know what my grandparents and villagers told me, Sir.”  
“And what more did they tell you?”

The merchant froze, his eyes darting away.  
“Go on, speak. Nothing will happen to you.”

The man swallowed again. “My grandmother used to say that those beasts,” he started reluctantly, “that there was time when they were a great help to people. But then… it changed, and they were hunted down. Only few of them are left now living scattered around the country. She also used to say that…”  
“What?”  
“That a man cannot break the bond between the beast and his bride. It could kill the human as well as the beast. That once the bond is formed, they are one. Taking one from the other would make them weak and longing, not fit for a life.”

Howard had a sudden feeling that he might not be able to draw another breath.  
“No… no, those are only the stupid tales for the children. I will talk to my boy and break him out of that spell or whatever that is.”

Obadiah put a hand on Howard’s shoulder. His expression was one of consideration and careful calculation.  
“Don’t worry, Howard. We’ll get him back.” He turned towards the merchant. “Anything else?”  
“No, Sir.”  
“You are free to go.”

The two men remained alone once more, and Howard fought the sudden despair spreading in his chest.

“Howard.”  
“I know… I know. It’s just… I can’t imagine what that thing could be doing to my boy. When I close my eyes all I can see is Anthony chained to some rock and waking up every day to the same horror.”

Howard had heard his son scream only once. When they had been operating on him. Now all he could hear were the same screams and pleas, endless and painful, for somebody to save his boy.

OOO

“Oh. Oooh! Oh! Damn. Somebody save me! Heey! Save me from this rageful beast! Wong where are yo…”

Tony’s mouth were successfully shut with a dirty kiss and all the blacksmith could do was moan into those sinful lips. His whole body moved against the stronger one above him, doing all it could to cause some friction between their lower parts.

“No one’s here, Anthony! You’re entirely on my mercy. No one will save you,” Stephen spoke with low, lust filled voice and an evil smirk.

Tony huffed. “Okay, then. I will save my strength for another time,” he snorted, sucking a mark on Stephen’s neck quickly as a small act of rebellion.

“Oh, you little…” Stephen was back at his lips instantly.

Soon the room was filled with needy whispers and loud moans morphing into a series of screams and pleas for mercy as the two bodies collided.

Each of those screams carried the name of Tony’s beloved, filled full of passion, affection and sweet release.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, dear friends,
> 
> how are you? Excited for the final chapters? :)
> 
> I would like to express my great gratitude towards the two lovely souls [RosieMS](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieMS/works) and [Iithril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iithril/pseuds/Iithril) who created beautiful fanart for this story. I will upload their works also in the next chapters. For this one it was our beautiful kittens by RoseMS as she was the first to alert me about her work. Thank you very much, RosieMS! Thank you very much, dear Iihtril! I can't even express properly how your works made me feel. :)
> 
> PS: I had a big big problem to address Stephen as "it" and "the thing" while speaking for Howard in this chapter. It was kinda tearing my heart to shreds. Anyone with the same experience? Let me know in the comments. :)


	16. Of course I do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Of course I do, you silly."

[ ](https://ibb.co/GQtD4zP)

 

“Thank you, oh, gods! Thank you, good man. But please, do tell, why are you doing this?” The woman teared up rocking her infant son in her arms, a happy smile plastered over her face. Three small heads were peeping from behind her skirt. They were smiling shyly on the stranger, who she’d seen perhaps only twice in her life. There was no one else in the house. Her man long time buried at the cemetery two streets north from where they lived.

“I have nothing to repay you,” she said, clearly ashamed for the unfortunate situation she was in.  
“It’s fine, Betty. Your name is, Betty, right?” Rhodey squeezed the woman’s hand tightly. “Just keep it quiet, okay?”

Rhodey looked around. Speaking in the doorway, he kept his voice low even though the street behind his back was busy and loud with everyday life.  
“Me and my wife…” he continued, “we’re trying to help those who don’t have enough to survive the winter. We had a good harvest.”

The woman nodded, not asking how Rhodey knew about her and her children or how many others received a bag full of potatoes, vegetable and some herbs, just like she had few minutes ago. For free. Her eyes glassy and full of gratitude turned back to Rhodey.

“Your wife. Her name is Virginia, yes? She’s with child?” When Rhodey nodded, her expression softened.  
“My sister. She helped with bringing my children to this world. She knows a lot. I will send her to your wife.”

Rhodey gave Betty a surprised look, which soon turned warm. The worry over his soon to be delivered baby girl was evident in his eyes.  
“Thank you. We will appreciate that very much.”

The woman nodded, almost stepping back to the house with a goodbye on her lips when she stopped suddenly, looking wary.

“There is… something else,” she said carefully. Her eyes quickly scanned the street behind Rhodey’s back. “There are rumors about… your friend, that blacksmith? Some men from Capital are searching for him.”

Rhodey’s heart jumped in his chest.  
His and Tony’s friendship wasn’t a secret. Naturally, people knew about the best blacksmith in the country and also about the fate that had met him.

“They are settled two villages far from here,” the woman continued almost whispering. “They arrived last night. People say he’s someone important. That friend of yours. That they came for him. I don’t know much. But they will surely try to talk to you. Everyone knows you’re his friend.”

The woman pursued her lips while looking down on the baby starting to cry softly in her arms. Perhaps hungry.

“I wanted only to warn you. You’re a good man. A very good man.” She still smiled even though she clearly wasn’t sure if she hadn’t revealed something she shouldn’t have.

“Thank you,” Rhodey tried to calm her down. “It’s good you told me. We will speak with the men. No worries.”  
Rhodey looked down on the children tugging wordlessly at their mother’s clothes.  
“Go feed your children and be well, Betty. You too, little one,” Rhodey gently caressed the infant’s cheek. The baby blinked at him and stopped sobbing for a moment, curious.

“I will pray for you and your family!” Betty called out after Rhodey stepped away. She ushered her offsprings further inside, waving before she closed the door.

Rhodey turned on his feet, freezing when faced with people running up and down the street. Many thoughts stormed through his head in the next moments while he took a deep breath and exhaled everything he had in his lungs in hope to clear his mind.

He had to act quickly.

He knew too well who those men were, and he had to suppress a need to laugh imagining that Howard Stark decided to care about his son right now. When Tony had already someone else keeping him safe and cared for. Someone far better than the old man, who’d used Tony so many times and had given him very little in return.

No. No more wasting time. He needed to learn more of their plans.  
And then…

His next steps must lead to the woods.

OOO

 

Tony was feeling like he fell into a trance.

Or at least it was the closest he could describe the feeling of all of his attention resting on the magical relic in front of him. For hours.

He sighed when two hands landed gently on his shoulders starting to massage his stiff muscles. Tony tilted his neck to the side, losing the focus as his eyes dropped closed and a shameless moan escaped his lips.

A soft chuckle behind him suggested that the other occupant of the cave had heard him very well.

“You’re trying to distract me,” Tony purred out, praying that Stephen won’t stop what he was doing anytime soon.

Another chuckle.  
“Is it working?”

“Not at all,” Tony lied through his teeth, moaning again in a close aftermath as Stephen moved his fingers on the back of his neck.

“Huh, doesn’t look like you are against the attention, my sweet bride.”

Tony immediately reddened in the cheeks. The butterflies in his stomach fluttered their wings tickling him from inside.

“What can I say? You’re reading it all wrong,” Tony murmured, smirking. His eyes reluctantly opened only for his whole body to become rigid once again as he looked at the relic enveloped in a magnificent green light.  
Stephen had to sense a change in him because his fingers suddenly stopped even despite Tony’s immediate protests.

“You need to get out of here, Anthony. You’ve been starring at it for hours.”

Tony tried to make his sleepy, exhausted brain to match the emotion he was hearing in Stephen’s voice with words.

Worried.  
He realized.  
Stephen sounded worried.  
And sad.  
And lonely.

He turned his face all the way to the left as far as possible finding out that Stephen had dropped to his knees behind his back in the meantime. Their lips met in a lazy kiss.

Tony blinked his eyes open after they had parted, smiling sweetly as Stephen’s nose nuzzled his cheek.

“Come out with me. I made you summer again.”

“What?” Tony cocked his eyebrow in a surprise and confusion.

Stephen placed a small kiss on the tip of Tony’s nose, smiling brightly.  
“You were complaining about the cold weather, remember? I made it warm again… in the forest. You can go swimming and we can lie down on the sun. I brought a basket full of fruit.”

Tony’s eyes ignited with the excitement for the rest and all the mentioned things. He smiled, nodding, although his eyes were again drawn to the front. He sighed and the hands returned on his shoulders, squeezing.

“Your kittens are missing you. Birds too. Other animals in the forest came looking out for you. Even Wong misses you, although he won’t admit so,” Stephen finished with an audible smirk.  
“I miss you very much,” he added in a low tone sending a shiver down Tony’s body.

How could he say no to this?

“Let’s go,” Tony decided, letting Stephen to pick him up on his feet effortlessly. He needed to stretch a bit and he did so happily in Stephen’s arms, hugging the beast while standing on his toes to place a kiss on his forehead.

“Thank you for trying so hard…” he said sheepishly. “I know I’m not making it easy for you. I’m just… This is…” he gestured widely to the relic. “I’m sick of it, but I can’t let it go until I figure this out.”  
Tony groaned.  
“Damn, sometimes I’m even talking to the stupid stone.”

The hug tightened a tiny bit.

“Does it answer?”  
Tony couldn’t figure out if the question was meant seriously or as a joke, but he smirked anyway realizing it could be both.

“Sometimes I feel like it does,” he admitted. “Or I might be already hallucinating. That’s also the option.”

Stephen laughed and the sound of it made Tony look back at him, his breath getting stuck in his lungs when he ran his eyes over his beautiful partner.

He was missing all of this.  
Stephen.  
Because of that fucking stone.  
Because it wouldn’t let him sleep.  
Because it was threatening Stephen’s life.

“Let’s go,” he repeated tugging at Stephen’s sleeve before he could change his mind.

Emerging from the cave Tony felt like entering a totally different world. Whereas inside it was cold and wet, here the air was filled with the smell of flowers and grass. He started to sweat right away beneath all the layers of clothing he’d put on himself.

Stephen started to undress him sensing Tony’s wish to get free of the extra weight. He left him standing naked next to him. The sun above them kissed Tony’s bare skin and sent warmth to spread in his bones. Tony took in the fresh air, blinking fondly at Stephen’s eyes mapping his body like he was seeing him for the first time. It would never stop to amaze him how he could sweep Tony off his feet with a mere gaze.

Cloakie, very playful today, wrapped Tony in a hug and like that they walked to the shore of the lake. The Cloak obediently released him then and returned to its master once they were in their destination. Both of them stayed on the land watching how Tony dived into the pleasantly warm water and enjoyed himself for a few minutes in a calm water.

Back on the shore a basket full of fruit and some wine was waiting for him as promised. Stephen wrapped him in Tony’s veil, which no matter how many times it was used as a blanket or clothing, it never got dirty these days. Tony sensed some magic in that…

The blacksmith smiled as he realized that the thin fabric left nothing for imagination and so he was as good as lying naked next to Stephen while picking on the fruit.

He would lie if he tried to claim that he wasn’t fond of the way Stephen’s eyes were burning more and more with longing and passion each passing minute. And so he provoked him. Taking the fruit between his fingers and biting with his eyes never leaving those of the man before him. It didn’t take long. Not at all…

Next moment the veil was ripped off him and more clothes thrown away until both of them got rid off all the barriers between their bodies.

Stephen took him slowly.

He pressed Tony’s body in the soil and the grass and thrusted inside his thigh spot for what felt like eternity, making it both the absolute pleasure and the most horrible torture.

Tony groaned when Stephen rolled off him leaving the trace of their common peek leaking out from between Tony’s thighs. He used the spell to clean them only after few minutes. After Tony had some time to enjoy the feeling of being filled like that.

The veil was brough back to cover his skin while his head rested on Stephen’s shoulder.

Tony glanced into the clouds with a gentle sigh.

“Is it okay to have summer again? What about the forest?”

Stephen had explained to him once how the ecosystem in the forest worked. According to his words it was okay to make spring and summer and even the part of the autumn nice and warm without a single rain drop. The forest was magical, and it didn’t need water as much as regular plants. But winter was still crucial. The forest and the animals needed to rest, so at the end of the autumn finally the rain follows and then snow. Tony had no problem with that. Having summer weather the most of the year time was enough for him. But now when the change had been actually happening, he realized that his mood was greatly affected.

“The forest can withstand a one sunny day,” Stephen murmured groggily. He had his eyes closed, one hand resting on Tony’s back and the other was left for Tony to play with on his chest. Cloakie was lying down heavily on both of them, chilling as well.

“I can’t wait to decorate for Christmas,” Tony said, awakening Stephen’s curiosity with the statement.  
“Christmas?” he asked, puzzled.  
“Oh. Don’t tell me you’ve never celebrated Christmas!” Tony was immediately full of life and beaming.  
“We definitely have to celebrate Christmas!”

He spent another hour and half explaining how Christmas time was the most amazing time of the year and that it was connected to human’s gods, although Tony wasn’t really religious. His eyes were shining with childish joy and happiness while he’d been talking, and Stephen was so awestruck and lovesick that he didn’t even catch the last question thrown at him.

“What?” he asked clumsily, taking in Tony’s face frowning playfully.  
“You weren’t paying attention!”

Actually, Stephen was paying a lot of attention. All of his attention.

“I was asking whether you want to celebrate?”

Stephen nodded without a second thought.  
“Yes. Of course.”  
“Wong?”  
Stephen snorted.  
“He will have a lot of remarks, but he will surely join us.”

That seemed to be enough for Tony, who smiled brightly stealing Stephen’s breath away just like that.  
“Okay, so one more thing on our list of plans.”

They had a list now, yes.

They had both agreed on the fact that Tony isn’t going to leave the forest anymore. Stephen hadn’t been able to hide his excitement caused by this particular decision very well. That left them with the task of figuring out how Tony could again sell his inventions, which were piling up in his workshop and very effectively prevented him from building more. Which on the other hand… gave him more time to spend in the cave with the relic.

They still had a lot of things to sort out, but for now Stephen decided to put all of his effort into dragging Tony out of there and spend time with him. He could start to deal with the rest again after winter. It was so easy to picture their life to continue like this.

It felt like years since he’d found Tony in that cave, bound and defiant. And now they were living both here and Stephen was… happy. Helplessly in love according to Wong’s words.

“I was thinking that we could finish the ceremony,” Tony said suddenly, and Stephen flinched with how quick he looked at him.  
“What ceremony?”

Tony looked at him sheepishly.  
“The one I read about in the diary. The one that should have happened at the day we met,” Tony said slowly like he wasn’t sure if he was getting everything right. “It’s like a wedding, right?”

Stephen wasn’t able to speak for a moment with how his heart tried to jump out of his chest.

“I mean only if you want to?”

Stephen quickly kissed that unsure expression off Tony’s face.  
“Yes, it is like a wedding,” he said breathlessly after they’d pulled away. “Yes, I want to,” he added quickly, cupping Tony’s face in his hands to plant another kiss on his lips.

“I didn’t… I didn’t know you would like to finish it,” he said carefully.  
Tony looked confused.  
“Why wouldn’t I?”  
“Well…” Stephen looked away not sure if he wanted to bring this up, but it seemed inevitable now.  
“You never said you love me.”

His words were too quiet and so unlike him. He was sure Tony could tell and knew the reason.

“Oh, Stephen…” he said after a moment, “of course I do love you.” Tony’s smile was even brighter than before. Stephen, speechless and with heart thundering in his chest, watched him take the veil and pulling it over his head, mirroring the picture in Stephen’s memory from that first time.  
“I want to wear this veil again, but now… without the shackles,” he grinned.

Stephen laughed too, unable to resist but slide under the veil too. He stopped in front of Tony’s face, just mere inches apart.

“I love you, Anthony Stark.”  
Tony smirked.  
“I love you more, Stephen Strange.” Pause. “My king.”

Stephen made a mocking grimace before Tony pulled him into another kiss and over his warm body. It looked like they weren’t done yet.

“Stephen!”

Stephen stopped dead with his hand between Tony’s legs turning sharply after the voice carrying from the forest. Wong.

Cloak looked like he knew immediately what to do as it wrapped tightly around Tony’s naked body and Stephen quickly put his own clothes on finished at the time when Wong emerged from the trees. He was about to open his mouth and ask what was so important that they needed to be disturbed when another man stumbled after Wong and Stephen recognized Tony’s friend. James.

“Rhodey?”  
Tony stood up behind him. They exchanged worried looks.

“Tony!” James called after him passing few more meters until they were face to face.

“We have a visitor,” Wong said with an annoyed undertone although it didn’t seem like it was aimed at the human next to him.

“And I’m not the only one,” James said quickly.  
“What are you talking about, Rhodey? What’s wrong? Why are you here?”

“Tony, your father.”  
Tony stiffened on Stephen’s left.  
“What with him?”

Rhodey took a deep breath. His expression apologizing. “He’s here, Tony.” An anger flashed across his features. “And he has Pepper.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends,
> 
> 1\. So first of all, I need some nice words. Who is still reading? How are you, guys? Let me know. I'm drowning in school work. Help. Someone save me. :)  
> 2\. Second, the beautiful art you saw at the top comes from [Iithril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iithril/pseuds/Iithril) and I want to thank her again for this brilliant artwork, her time and dedication. As you could all probably detect she portrayed the two houses mentioned in the story - Wong's and Tony and Stephen's. I love it. Can't even say how much...  
> 3\. The last three chapter are before us and it's going to be a ride! Let me know hod you imagine your ideal the end, you might inspire me! :)


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